【推荐2】Someone had given our name and phone number to a charity, and its staff were bringing us Christmas presents.

I made sure the house was as spotless as it could be with four children living in it. as the due time drew near, I sat on the edge of the couch. Each time I heard a car, I jumped up to see if they were here. Each time it wasn’t them, I was relieved, yet disappointed.

Finally a huge car pulled into the driveway, and four people got out. Now I was embarrassed as well as grateful, excited and nervous. I greeted them with a smile. They made several trips and soon my living room was full of boxes and bags.

I tried to say “thank you” but my throat suddenly closed up and tears welled up in my eyes.

I watched through the window as they drove away, wondering what they thought of me. I had always donated, but not received. We weren’t always like this. My husband had been out of work, and we were struggling. I’d wanted to say this to them, but the words wouldn’t come out.

I quickly put away the gifts before the school-aged children came home. I hid them in closets and under beds as quickly as I could. On Christmas morning I felt a little guilty as our four children tore open the boxes and bags with pleasure, thinking they were from us.

My nine-year-old son opened a game box and taped inside the lid was an envelope. I opened it and read aloud: May the joy of Christmas be with you all through the year. At the bottom of the card, written in small, neat letters was a sentence, it said: Although the sea gets rough, no storm lasts forever.

I was suddenly ashamed of being ashamed. I finally understood.

【推荐3】Back in 1963， a company in the US was suffering from low employee（员工） spirit． Everyone was worried that they might lose their jobs， since the company had just joined up with another company， which meant there were suddenly more employees than needed．

That was when Harvey Ball（1921﹣2001）， an artist， was invited by the company to find a way to raise the workplace's spirit． It took Ball less than 10 minutes to draw a smiley face on a bright yellow background， which was then made into buttons that employees could wear on their jackets as a reminder to smile at each other． The face soon became part of the companies culture and was introduced across the country， and﹣ before Ball realized it﹣to the world．

However， as much effort as Ball made， that "message"soon grew to become twisted（歪曲的）． Just think about it： How many of us still use the simple smiley face emoji just to say， "I'm smiling "？ Chances are when we use it， we often mean， "I'm just going to ignore you or"That' s just perfect"﹣ in a sarcastic（讽刺的）way． And our favorite emojis perhaps also include the upside﹣down face or the face with tears of joy ﹣both changed from Ball's former smiley face﹣ and yet， both are often used sarcastically．

Indeed， in today's world， we deal with many things with sarcasm instead of with a smile， perhaps because were finding it harder and harder to be happy． but we keep forgetting about the fact that happiness and smiling go both ways． As Vietnamese spiritual teacher Thich Nhat Hanh once said， "Sometimes， your joy is the source of your smile． But sometimes， your smile can be the source of your joy That was probably what was in Balls mind when he first came up with the smiley face： A smile brings joy， and joy brings people closer together．