【推荐1】Adults understand what it feels like to be flooded with objects(物品). Why do we often think that more is more when it comes to kids and their belongings? The good news is that I can help my own kids learn earlier than I did how to live more with less.

I found the pre-holidays a good time to encourage young children to donate less-used things, and it worked. Because of our efforts, our daughter Georgia did decide to donate a large bag of toys to a little girl whose mother was unable to pay for her holiday due to illness. She chose to sell a few larger objects that were less often used when we promised to put the money into her school fund (基金) (our kindergarten daughter is serious about becoming a doctor).

For weeks, I’ve been thinking of bigger, deeper questions: How do we make it a habit for them? And how do we train ourselves to help them live with, need, and use less? Yesterday, I sat with my son, Shepherd, determined to test my own theory on this. I decided to play with him with only one toy for as long as it would keep his interest. I expected that one toy would keep his attention for about five minutes, ten minutes, max. I chose a red rubber ball — simple, universally available. We passed it, he tried to put it in his mouth, he tried bouncing it, rolling it, sitting on it, throwing it. It was totally, completely enough for him. Before I knew it an hour had passed and it was time to move on to lunch.

We both became absorbed in the simplicity of playing together. He had my full attention and I had his. My little experiment to find joy in a single object worked for both of us.

【推荐3】A young man wandered through the desert for forty until he reached a beautiful castle at the top of a mountain. There lived the sage that he was looking for.

With considerable patience, the sage listened attentively to the reason for the boy’s visit, but told him that at that moment he did not have time to explain to him the secret of happiness.

He suggested that the young man take a walk around his palace and come back in two hours’ time.

“However, I want to ask you a favor,” he added, handing the boy a teaspoon, in which he poured two drops of oil. “While you walk, carry this spoon and don’t let the oil spill.”

The young man began to climb up and down the palace staircases, always keeping his eyes fixed on the spoon. At the end of two hours he returned to the presence of the wise man.

“So,” asked the sage, “did you see the Persian tapestries hanging in my dining room? Did you see the fantastic garden that the Master of Gardeners spent ten years in creating?”

Embarrassed, the young man admitted that he had seen nothing.

“So, go back and see the wonders of my world,” said the wise man. “You can’t trust a man if you don’t know his house.”

Now more at ease, the young man took the spoon and wandered again through the palace, this time paying attention to all the works of art that hung from the ceilings and walls. He saw the gardens, the mountains all around the palace, and the delicacy of the flowers. Returning to the sage, he reported in detail what he had seen.

“But where are the two drops of oil that I entrusted to you?” asked the Sage.

Looking down at the spoon, the young man realized that he had spilled the oil.

“Well, that is the only advice I have to give you,’’ said the sage of sages. “The secret of happiness lies in looking at all the wonders of the world and never forgetting the two drops of oil in the spoon.”

【推荐1】If practicing an attitude of gratitude during the storms of life is too much for you right now, that’s OK. When things are tough, most people have a hard time being thankful. They’re so caught up in what’s wrong in the present moment that they simply can’t see some things are still right.

If that’s true for you, then accept it. You’re going through a particularly difficult or unhappy period of time, and you don’t like it one bit. Very normal, very human. But remember this: there is always something to be grateful for. It maybe only a small comfort right now, but it is a start. Make a list of some of the terrible things that didn’t happen. For example:

●You’re in debt...but you’re not homeless.

●You lost your job...but you didn’t lose your health.

●You broke your leg...but you didn’t break your neck.

●Your mother has Alzheimer’s disease...but your father doesn’t.

No matter how bad things are, they could always be worse. Start finding gratitude for what might have happened, but didn’t. It does help a lot. Of course, you may not be thankful for everything — but you can always be thankful for something.

【推荐2】I choose to argue against the topic of “TikTok has done more harm than good to young people”. Now as many people know, TikTok is a very popular app that started becoming very popular in March 2020. Many parents think TikTok is an improper and unsafe platform for young children. Let me start by saying that TikTok is not for young children! In Europe, the legal age for TikTok is 16 and in America the legal age is 13.

Secondly, many adults believe that seeing millions of “perfect” people who spend hours on makeup all the time can make us feel unhappy, but I personally find this entirely untrue. There are many people on TikTok and not each and every one is fascinated about “being perfect”. People also forget that TikTok isn’t entirely made up of people spreading nasty(恶意的) messages and pretending to be perfect. On TikTok you can find recipes, animals, facts, poems and nature among many other useful things.

Furthermore, if you are seeing an account that is making you feel unsafe, TikTok has made it very easy to block and report the creator. By blocking the creator you will no longer be able to view their content and by reporting the account you are telling TikTok that it is inappropriate and should be banned.

Finally, people might worry that strangers will comment hurtful messages on young people’ s videos, shattering their confidence, but TikTok is one step ahead. It has a very clear choice that you can enable called “private” which means that only people you allow can view/ comment on your videos. In conclusion, I am not saying that TikTok is perfect but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

【推荐3】You have probably heard the saying, “When life gives you lemons (柠檬), make lemonade.” Since lemons are considered bitter and lemonade is considered sweet, the saying tells you to make the best out of a bad situation.

Unfortunately, when something bad happens, it’s not uncommon for most people to talk about it to anyone who’ll listen, and complain (抱怨) about life, “Why me?” That’s like getting a bag of lemons, putting them down, and thinking “Lemons taste bad! I’d rather have chocolate!” If you don’t make anything with the lemons, they will go bad. But what if you did something with them? What if you made lemonade? Isn’t it possible to do something similar with a bad situation? Here’s an example: Let’s say you’re about to go to the movies, but you discover you have a flat tire (瘪胎). You consider this a terrible thing. After all, you are really looking forward to spending some time with Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. Now you’re all stressed out, hating the tire, the car, and your life. But what if you called AAA, got your tire fixed or got caught up on things that you’d been meaning to do? What if you did some reading, or had coffee with a friend instead? A bad experience can be turned into something good. Almost anything can work itself out into something better. You can’t change what has happened, right? So make the best of it. I’m not saying it will be easy. The easy thing to do is complain about your bad situation and not consider what it could be turned into.

Next time when some unfortunate things happen stop and think, “How can I turn this around? How can I make it an awesome experience?” You needn’t fear difficulties. As long as you keep on changing it, you will see the benefits at last.