One day, before setting off for school, my 7-year-old son Jason broke my roses and asked, “_______ I take them to school today?” After saying goodbye, I turned my back _______ he wouldn’t see the tears in my eyes. I loved that rose bush. I was sad most of the day. Then I hurried to pick up Jason _______ 2:30 p.m.

“I want to talk to you about Jason,” the teacher said after _______ me into the classroom. My son was _______ drawing a picture when I came into the classroom. I prepared _______ for the worst. In my mind, there was a voice saying _______ would have surprised me.

“Did you know Jason _______ flowers to school today?” she asked. I nodded, thinking about the rose bush _______ I planted years ago and trying to hide the sadness in my eyes. “Let me tell you about yesterday.” the teacher continued, “See that little girl?” I saw ________ bright-eyed child who was looking at a picture on the wall and laughing. I nodded.

“Well, yesterday she almost lost control. Her mother and father are having a quarrel. She worried about ________ her parents would leave her forever and said loud enough for the class to hear, ‘Nobody loves me.’ I did all I could ________ her up. However, it only seemed to make matters ________. Today your son walked to that child. I watched him give her   ________ pretty flowers and say, ‘I love you.’”

I felt my heart filled with ________ for what my son had done.

In my memory, many things I did with my father still _______. These things come to my mind from time to time.

I don’t remember my father ever getting into a swimming pool, but he really _______ the water. Any kind of _______ ride seemed to give him pleasure, _______ he loved to fish; sometimes he took me along.

But I never really liked being on the water, the way my father did. I liked being off the water. I was not a strong _______, or one who learned to swim early. But I loved being in the swim pool close to my father’s office and _______ those summer days with my father, who would come by on a break. I needed him to see what I could do. My father would stand there in his suit, the only person not in swimsuit.

After swimming, I would go _______ his office and sit on the wooden chair in front of his big desk, where he let me play with anything I found in his desk drawer.

Sometimes, if I was left alone at his desk while he worked in the lab, an assistant or a student might come in and tell me not to play with his lab equipment. But my father always said easily, “Oh, no, it’s _______.” Sometimes he handed me coins and told me to get _______ an ice cream.

A poet once said, “We look at life once, in childhood.” As we grow up, living a busy life, the recall is only the _______. And I think it is the childhood that looks at us.