On my run one morning, I was stopped by an elderly Chinese woman waving her phone at me and speaking to me in Chinese. She spoke no English at all. She was clearly lost and was trying to walk home.

She showed me screenshots of maps on her phone, though I was unable to direct her. I worked nearby and knew someone who might be able to translate for us. So I asked her to come with me to find the person who would be able to speak with her.

Unfortunately, my friend wasn’t working so I quickly downloaded a translation app, and used the app for translation. I didn’t have the keyboard for her to type to me, but she used the microphone feature to translate into English, and I would write a reply. I was able to determine the address she needed to get to. It was at least 45 minutes’ walking distance from her home. She didn’t want to use transport, but agreed to let me walk her to a bus stop where she could call her daughter to pick her up.

Though this all ended up taking me 45 minutes, it was such a lovely meeting, despite having to communicate by an app and having to put trust and faith in the other with technology to talk to one another. I am so deeply thankful for having been able to support this woman. As a single parent of two teens and knowing my surroundings well, I regard these things as natural.

This beautiful lost, elderly woman, was greatly thankful for my time and kept saying sorry for taking my time. I had to keep reminding her that was no trouble at all for me, and that I only wanted to ensure she got home safely.

Sam was a junior high school student. He lived in a community in Charlotte and usually had little exposure to country life. So much of what he knew about plants came from text-books. Sam was a kind-hearted person. He longed for a chance to explore nature and he wanted to do his part to beautify the world.

Finally, the opportunity came. On Arbor Day (植树节), his class organized a trip to a local village to plant trees. Sam was excited about it and couldn’t wait to tell his mom the good news. So the next day, Sam and his mom went to buy some tools for planting trees, including a shovel(铲), a bucket, gloves and so on.

On the day of the event, Sam and his classmates arrived early at the starting point. It was a beautiful day and everyone looked particularly happy. With the tools in hand, Sam got into the bus with everyone else and headed off to their destination.

As soon as they reached the village, all the students were divided into three teams by their teacher. One team was responsible for planting the trees, one team for shovelling the soil and one team for watering the trees. At the teacher’s command, everyone started to do their job.

However, it was the first time that many of the students had taken part in planting trees, so they had no idea about how to start. Of course, Sam was one of them. Fortunately, their teacher was a middle-aged man from the countryside who had some knowledge of planting trees. In order to set an example to the students, the teacher started to plant trees himself. After watching the teacher plant the trees, everyone also became busy. Before long, they planted hundreds of trees. Sam watched very carefully, not wanting to miss any of the details. Finally, Sam learned how to plant trees by himself and felt happy.

A few days later, a storm damaged some young trees in the community.

The neighbours praised Sam for what he had done.

My great-grandmother Eileen is fierce, loyal and strong and a bit of a legend in her own lifetime, which now stretches to 92 years. I should add that we’re not allowed to call her Gran, because she says it makes her feel old.

That summer, I lost my job and felt hopeless. One day, I paid a visit to her. She picked up a box which she placed on the coffee table. “There you go,” she said. “You do know what you’re doing with these things, don’t you?”

It was a new phone. Her current mobile was pretty ancient. I was amazed it was still going.

“Yes,” I said.

“Good. That’s why I ask you. You young people know more about such things than us oldies. You can take it home with you and get it all set up,” she went on. “Then, when you bring it back, you can show me how to use my new phone, such as getting on the internet, sending e-mails and so on.” She smiled so sweetly that I felt a surge of love for her.

I grabbed the box and stood up. Setting up the phone would be easy. It was teaching her how to use it that may prove challenging.

The following day I headed back to my great-grandmother’s with the phone. “Here’s your phone. It’s all ready to use.”

For the next hour, I was busy setting up her passcode and fingerprint recognition, which she said was like something out of James Bond.

She chose a picture for her screen and it was all going so well until I tried to show her how to swipe (滑动屏幕). “What do you mean, swipe?” she asked. She was 92, I reminded myself. This had been tiring for her.

She pressed at the up arrow and got angry when nothing happened. When I finally got her to swipe, she didn’t put the right amount of pressure on and the menu slipped away. After what seemed like hours, she threw the phone across the room and it landed on the sofa. “Take it away!” she howled. “I want my old phone back!”

I picked up the phone and was about to leave to give her time to cool down when I realized I didn’t want to go home when she was angry and upset.

“Come on, Eileen. One more try.” I said.

I was not feeling so hopeless any more now.

I was invited to a cookout on an old friend’s farm in western Washington. I parked my car outside the farm and walked past a milking house which had apparently not been used in many years. A noise at a window caught my attention, so I entered it. It was a hummingbird (蜂鸟), desperately trying to escape. She was covered in spider-webs (蛛网) and was barely able to move her wings. She ceased her struggle the instant I picked her up.

With the bird in my cupped hand, I looked around to see how she had gotten in. The broken window glass was the likely answer. I stuffed a piece of cloth into the hole and took her outside, closing the door securely behind me.

When I opened my hand, the bird did not fly away; she sat looking at me with her bright eyes. I removed the sticky spider-webs that covered her head and wings. Still, she made no attempt to fly. Perhaps she had been struggling against the window too long and was too tired? Or too thirsty?

As I carried her up the blackberry-lined path toward my car where I kept a water bottle, she began to move. I stopped, and she soon took wing but did not immediately fly away.

Hovering (悬停), she approached within six inches of my face. For a very long moment, this tiny creature looked into my eyes, turning her head from side to side. Then she flew quickly out of sight.

During the cookout, I told my hosts about the hummingbird incident. They promised to fix the window. As I was departing, my friends walked me to my car. I was standing by the car when a hummingbird flew to the center of our group and began hovering. She turned from person to person until she came to me. She again looked directly into my eyes, then let out a squeaking call and was gone. For a moment, all were speechless. Then someone said, “She must have come to say goodbye.”

A few weeks later, I went to the farm again.

I was just about to leave when the hummingbird appeared.

“I just couldn’t stop thinking about her.” That’s what a nine-year-old cat lover Sutter Rowse said after he saw a story about a stray cat (流浪猫) in his community of Williams Lake, British Columbia, which was in need of surgery (外科手术). He decided to do something about it and raise funds to help the cat. Now, that cat is much better and has a brand new owner, all thanks to Sutter’s hard work and clever thinking.

Online, Sutter came across a story posted by his local animal shelter. The BC SPCA explained that the cat — which was named Hazel by shelter staff — had been found at the transfer station in Anahim Lake, about fourhours west of Sutter’s home. A transfer station is a place where garbage and other waste are sorted. Shelter staff said Hazel was looking for food there.

They later discovered that the back part of it was injured. The head of her femur (股骨) was broken and died — meaning the death of cells in some part of the body — had set in, so Hazel would need surgery to get better. SPCA staff put out a call to the community to raise funds for it, and that’s when Sutter got to work. Sutter thought up a good idea: making use of the power of cinnamon buns (肉桂面包). He knew if there was anything that could get community members to empty their pockets, it would be this sweet treat: cinnamon buns.

He and his mum, Leslie Rowse, got to workbaking, and his mum posted about Sutter’s efforts on a social media page for his local community. Around 15 dozen (or 180) cinnamon buns later, Sutter had raised $850. His mum dropped off the money at the shelter, and Hazel was able to start her surgeries.

Following Hazel’s surgeries and several days of recovery, Sutter’s mum was ready to share some good news. Sutter’s mum told Sutter that Hazel had a new owner. She asked him to guess who that owner was. “I guessed us! And I was right,” said Sutter.

They decided to pick up Hazel on weekend.

Since adopting Hazel, Sutter has made a lot to improve her condition.

7-year-old Tommy Wilkinson’s childish desires got the best of him. He envied his best friend Eric over his new fancy bicycle. One day, Tommy gathered the courage to demand the bicycle. His parents refused him. But his dad, Peter Wilkinson, made a suggestion: “You can get the bike if you save up for it.” Without a second thought, Tommy decided to set aside money from his allowance (零花钱) every day to raise the amount he needed: $600. Every day, the little boy made sure he placed some money into his piggy bank.

After almost two years, the day finally arrived. “Finally!” Tommy joyfully shouted as he dropped the piggy bank to the floor. Inside was $830! More than the $600 he was aiming for! Instantly, the excited boy asked his dad to take him to the bike store.

On their way to the store, Tommy accompanied his dad to the supermarket to buy some groceries. They were lining up at the checkout when Tommy noticed an old woman with a little girt in a wheelchair. The old lady dropped her groceries on the road. She looked helpless, and since she was holding the little girl’s wheelchair, she couldn’t pick them up.

Tommy quickly approached the woman. “Hey, let me help you. Where is your car?” he asked the woman whose name was Barbara. The woman told him that they lived across the street and didn’t have a car. “I’ll carry them for you,” Tommy said. On the way, the woman’s granddaughter, Chloe, told Tommy their story. It turned out Chloe injured her leg in a car crash, and her parents died in it. Barbara had to sell her car to pay for Chloe’s surgery and wheelchair. Their story moved Tommy.

After arriving at Barbara’s house, Tommy made an unbelievable offer. “I’ll get you a car!” he shouted with joy. “Not a new one, though. My dad sells used cars and I’ll get you one!” Tommy’s offer really shocked Barbara. “But I don’t think I can afford a car now,” she said.

“Don’t worry! My dad will help you get one. I promise!” Tommy said firmly.

Peter was surprised that Tommy would offer to give all his savings to help Barbara.

I have a 6-year-old boy, Sam. He is autistic(患自闭症的). Thus, dining out can be terrible. Though he loves to eat out, he dislikes the loud noise in a restaurant. He has a method to solve it: overpower(压倒) all noise with a much louder noise of his own.

This begins what I think of as fighting tables: neighboring parties raise their voice followed by Sam raising his until the loudest point of the noise is reached, making us quite unpopular with other dinners.

Faced with a possible long-time dining alone, I decided to teach my son table manners with his favourite chocolate cake at a new modern cake shop early one Tuesday night.

To my joy, we arrived at an empty cake shop. Everything went well until women entered. Neatly dressed in a simple way, they were two tables away from us. I felt a sense of bad luck coming.

The women began to chat, paying little attention to us. Sam happily took this as his start to talk loudly and overpower them. I asked Sam for a quiet voice, but unluckily Sam had left that voice at home. I looked at the neighboring table, knowing we wouldn’t go noticed much longer. I planned to ask Sam to eat quickly and leave. Sam, who usually has food unhurriedly, refused to accept the sudden idea of fast dining, and he kept talking endlessly.

“SHUSH!” I said, a little angry. Sam laughed loudly as his reply. “Be quiet!” I could see that the two women were now watching us.

Finally, the older of the two women came over.

It turned out to be a perfect night.