Holidays are not necessarily for fun or rest. Doing something meaningful can also gain special pleasure. When the final bell rang, the students were reminded that there was no school on Monday—the Labor Day. “Enjoy your extra day off” said the teacher to her class.

An extra day off unsuited Kayla just fine. She loved breaks. She wanted to go out to play with her friends. When the school bus dropped Kayla off, she ran into the house happily.

“How was school, Kayla?” asked her mom.

“It was great, Mom. I am excited about no school on Monday.”

“You just started back to school two weeks ago. Already in need of a break, huh?” asked Kayla’s mom with a laugh.

Kayla slept in the next morning. Saturday was her favorite day of the week. I trained most of the day, so Kayla enjoyed playing videogames inside. On Sunday, her friends came over and they played basketball for several hours.

Then it was Labor Day, you know, the extra day off that Kayla was so looking forward to. But Kayla was awakened early that morning by her dad. He told Kayla that in honor of Labor Day, the family would be cleaning both inside and outside the house. Kayla couldn’t believe it. This was a holiday. A day when she was supposed to be enjoying freshly squeezed lemonade while playing in her tree house. As Kayla wiped here yes, she began to wonder if this was just a bad dream.

“Kayla, your breakfast is ready. We have a lot of work to do today. Let’s get a move on,” said Kayla’s mom. As she sat down at the kitchen table, Kayla asked her parents，

“Are you serious about working today? Isn’t Labor Day a holiday?”

“Yes, Kayla. It is,” replied her dad. “But your mom and I thought working hard today would make you appreciate why Labor Day was observed in the first place.”

At first Kayla felt disappointed at her parents’ plan for the holiday.

But things began to change as she was doing the chores.

5 . Kindness is seen as a true strength, and the success of civilizations relies on kindness. As parents and teachers, we also teach children from a young age to “be kind to one another” and “treat others the way you want to be treated.”

In addition to being helpful to our interpersonal relationships, research has shown that kindness can even contribute to our well-being. According to the Mayo Clinic, when we perform acts of kindness, the pleasure center in our brain is activated, releasing the stress-reducing hormone (激素). Individuals who volunteer on a regular basis report greater life satisfaction. And what is even greater is that kindness rarely stops with just one person. There can be a positive contagion (扩散) effect, where other people are motivated to be nice if they receive a random act of kindness. The question then arises: Could kindness be harmful to us when it has such clear benefits? Let’s think about this in the workplace or in an organization.

You are the new person on the team and you want to be well-liked and respected by your colleagues. You are a kind person and tell your team, “Let me know how I can help you; I’m always available to help.” Though you may truly mean this, there are unfortunately people in this world who can see your kindness as a weakness. This can lead to you being taken advantage of by others.

Let’s fast forward a year. You have been in your position now for one year, and you are working with the same team. You are noticing that your colleagues continue asking for your help over and over again. In fact, the only time they communicate with you is when they need something. You have been so helpful to your colleagues and there has rarely been any return from them.

In a very broad sense, it is advantageous to be kind to others, and your kind acts will be appreciated and, perhaps, paid forward. However, you need to be willing to say “no”. Recognize when your plate is already too full. When people ask you a favor, assess if you have the time, energy, and attention to give to them. To truly be kind, sometimes you need to be more comfortable saying “no” to others and saying “yes” to yourself.

Christmas was hanging around. Six-year-old David was thinking what presents he could get from Santa. He wanted slippers; he wanted a silk tie; he wanted some toys. And school starting soon, he also hoped to get something about schooling. In order to get Santa to know what he needed, he thought he would write a letter to Santa, which he believed would bring him those presents. He found a sheet and made a list of the items on it, and then bent down to post the letter up the chimney, waiting for the winds to take it up.

David got up very early on the Christmas morning. He searched his room carefully, but to his disappointment, he didn’t find the presents he hoped for. Hadn’t Santa received the letter? Was he too busy to send him the gifts? Although feeling a little upset, David was convinced that Santa would not forget him and he was bound to receive the items.

Many years had passed and 2019 came. In an old house, a young builder, Lewis Shaw was removing the fireplace with his colleagues when he suddenly found a small piece of paper, which was still in perfect condition even if it had turned yellow. He picked it up and unfolded it. It was a letter written to Santa. The touching hand-written note read:

Please can you send me a drum, box of chalks, slippers, silk tie, pencil box, any little toys you have to spare?

Love David

It was then signed off with lots of kisses.

This was the very letter written by David and the house was where he had lived during his childhood! The letter struck Shaw so much. How simple Christmas once was! David didn’t ask for much, just the things he just needed. Nowadays kids always want expensive gifts and take it for granted.

Shaw decided to find out the author of the letter. He shared a photo of the note on Facebook.

Once, when I was a teenager, my father and I were standing in line to buy tickets for the circus(马戏团). Finally, there was only one family between us and the ticket counter.

This family made a big impression on me. There were eight children, all probably under the age of twelve. You could tell they didn’t have a lot of money.

Their clothes were not expensive, but they were clean. The children were well-behaved, all of them standing in line, two-by-two behind their parents, holding hands. They were excitedly talking about the clowns, elephants, and other acts they would see that night with their brothers or sisters in a low voice.

One could sense they had never been to the circus before. It should be highlight of their young lives. The father and mother were at the head of the pack, standing proud as could be. The mother was holding her husband’s hand, looking up at him as if to say, “You are my knight in shining armor.”

He was smiling and responding in pride, looking back at her as if to say, “You got that right.” The ticket lady asked the father how many tickets he wanted. He proudly responded, “Please let me buy eight children’s tickets and two adult tickets so I can take my family to the circus.”

The ticket lady gave the price. The man’s wife let go of his hand; her head dropped, and his lips began to shake. The father leaned a little closer and asked, “How much did you say?”

The ticket lady told the price to him again. The man didn’t have enough money. How could he turn and tell his eight children that he didn’t have enough money to take them to the circus?

In fact, we were not rich. So I understand how the kids would feel. I felt sorry for them.

Seeing what was going on, my dad put his hand in his pocket.

That day my father and I went back to our car and drove home without any tickets.

My cousin Allen was the coolest person in all of Minneapolis. By the age of 19, he was a star football player at the University of Minnesota. I wanted to be just like him. So when Allen asked me to join him on a spring fishing trip in northern Minnesota, I said yes!

After planning the trip, we gathered clothes and supplies and then set off on our adventure. We reached the Superior National Forest by early evening. On the way to our campsite, Allen pointed to a small house faraway in one of the mountains, saying that it was the ranger station (护林站) where the foresters worked.

Allen knew all the tricks of an experienced camper. After we gathered enough wood from the forest floor, he started the campfire using only stone and steel, no matches. After a day of travelling, we were very hungry. We ate beef and rice and some soup as well.

Exhausted, we crawled into our sleeping bags early. Allen was still talking about his past camping adventures when a sudden wind picked up from the north. The temperature dropped and it began to snow. Allen knew of a way to increase the temperature inside the tent. He dragged a log from the woods, wrapped aluminum foil (铝箔) around the log and then placed it near the campfire. The heat from the fire reflected into the tent. Soon the tent was warm again and thoughts of lake fish filled my dreams.

I was still dreaming when Allen woke me up in a panic. Our tent was on fire! The snow had stopped during the night, but the wind had fanned the flames of the fire towards our tent. Frightened by the flames, I ran out of the tent immediately. The tent collapsed with Allen inside. Without any hesitation, I reached into the burning tent, grabbed him, and dragged him to the icy lake. We checked each other to make sure neither of us was hurt.

Later, as we stood by the burning tent to keep warm, we considered our situation.

Suddenly, we heard a noise in the forest.

10 . The wish to capture the wonder of nature on a smartphone or camera is understandable. People like the beauty of nature and also want to share with their followers, friends and family, but our relationship with the outdoors should not be centered around social media. The “do it for the ‘‘Instagram’” thought needs to be reconsidered.

Social media has undoubtedly helped attract more visitors to wild places. There are both good and bad sides that come with an increased visitation to these sites. Visiting nature and observing wildlife can help people feel more connected to wild plants and animals. These experiences may encourage more protection of natural spaces. Yet increased traffic to these sites has also caused them harm. Spaces that are ill-equipped to deal with too many visits experience environmental degradation, which in turn can endanger those who take photos by putting them in dangerous situations. Search and rescue cases have increased by 38% in the last few years in LA County, some of which were connected to adventurers trying to capture photos for their social media. Deadly falls in the outdoors can and should be avoided with less photographing for social media.

Recently, one highly visited natural site stopped photography-only tours. Antelope Canyon in Page, Arizona, will no longer be allowing visits that are centered around cameras. Handheld phones will still be allowed, but large tripods (三角架) and monopods (独脚架) will not be. This is a great first step that should be brought to other natural settings, especially in places that have already been completely photographed by professionals.

It is necessary to free ourselves from technology every once and a while. The unhealthy attachment (依恋) to photography and social media feeds has created problems for humans and nature, and should be replaced with practicing mindfulness while in the outdoors.