A few years ago someone gave us a robot cleaner as a gift. We already had a lady who cleaned our house regularly and I didn’t really see us using this new machine, so it just sat in its box for quite some time.

One family in our neighborhood were moving away the next week to a new house and I thought of asking the mother whether this robot cleaner might be something she could use. And it turned out that she eagerly replied YES! Her new place had hardwood floors and her daughter was asking if they could get a robot cleaner but she said they would have to wait and see…and now they didn’t have to buy one!

I couldn’t tell you how overjoyed I was to see the daughter’s cheerful looks when she came over to get it. And she was even more excited about the flower seeds I gave her from our backyard. I hoped they would plant the seeds in their new home so that they would always have a piece of our circle with them. She was really touched. She also told me how moved they were when they saw a big pink heart on the front wall of our house while they were having their going-away party. I told her I wouldn’t wash it off even after they moved. I liked being reminded of how our hearts were connected to everyone.

The nice thing was that the daughter would still be working in our town, and I told her that if she ever needed to stay over instead of driving 45 minutes to the new house, our home would be always here for her. Soon after, a snowstorm hit our area and blocked all the roads.

Joe worked as a night watchman in a factory after he graduated from high school. It was a lonely job, but he was content. He stopped by the beach every day on his way home to watch the sunrise.

One day, he was walking on the beach when he noticed a bottle in the surf. Joe picked it up and saw a roll of paper inside it. His heart beat fast. He removed the lid and opened the letter. “Hi! My name is Ritchie. I’m sending this message in the hope that somebody will find it and become my friend.”

It saddened Joe to think of this boy waiting and hoping somebody would answer his message. He took his cell phone from his pocket and dialed the number written near the bottom of the page.

However, the number didn’t exist anymore. Joe was determined to find Ritchie, so he went straight to the city library for help. A librarian took him to a section of the library that felt deserted. There, she pointed him to the shelves filled with old telephone books. She sat down with him, and they searched the telephone books for Ritchie’s phone number together. Two hours later, the librarian let out an excited scream. “I found him!”

“Thank you,” Joe said, quickly copying down the address. He immediately headed for the address from the phone book. He almost screamed when he saw that the house at the address had been transformed into a hair salon. Joe stared at the sign. He held the message from the bottle in one fist and the paper with the address in the other. He walked in and explained everything to the barber. “Ritchie was born with disabilities. He has been using a wheelchair since he was a kid. Well, he’s an old man now. If you still want to find him, I hear he’s at the Serenity nursing home.” Joe thanked the man and drove to the nursing home.

After asking to see Ritchie, Joe was shown to a sunlit room.

One day, Joe received a call, learning that Ritchie had passed away the previous night.

“Will you do me a favor, Achenyo?” Mama called as she looked up from her weaving. Beside her was a pile of wild-grass stalks (秆). Mama took a stalk, laid it along the length of the half-finished bag, and began to weave (编织). In the corner were pots of dyes (染料) she’d use to paint the finished bags. “Will you get me some water for the dyes?” “Of course, Mama!” Achenyo picked up a pot as she ran outside. She didn’t like weaving, although it was a tradition for a mother to pass on the trade to her daughter. Outside, Achenyo called to her neighbor Ajuma. Both girls, with pots balanced on their heads, made their way to the river.

Achenyo and Ajuma soon arrived at the water’s edge, and they found a huge surprise. The river was gone! In its place was a blanket of dark green leaves and lavender-colored (淡紫色的) flowers. “Oh no!” Achenyo cried. “Mama won’t have water to mix the dyes for her bags.” When the adults arrived at the riverbank, they shook their heads, saying “They’ve struck again!”

Last year, the rainy season had brought an invasion (入侵) of water hyacinths. The plants had covered the river and left no room to dip a pot to get water. And now they were back. The adults walked into the water. They began pulling up water hyacinths and throwing them onto the riverbank. When they’d cleared enough plants, the girls filled their pots with water. A pile of water hyacinths lay on the riverbank. What a shame to waste such pretty flowers, Achenyo thought. She picked some for Mama, and then the girls headed home. Each day, they found the river covered by water hyacinths as if no one had cleared the waterfront (水边地) the day before. To fill their pots, they again had to pull up and throw water hyacinths onto the riverbank. The pile on the sand grew taller.

One day, as Achenyo moved an armful of dried water hyacinths out of her way, she had an idea. Carrying the plants under her arm, she ran home.

“Mama, will you teach me to weave?” asked Achenyo eagerly.

One afternoon, Achenyo held up her finished work made from water hyacinths.

Let me tell you a story. It is about Susannah Lung. She taught me to read and write for a single year when I was 7 years old. I’d been looking for Susannah, hoping to thank her in person, for almost twenty years.

I came to the US at one and a half years old, but I grew up in a household that only spoke Pashto &Farsi, so when I started kindergarten, I didn’t know a word of English. I don’t think my kindergarten teacher knew how to handle an ESL student because he used to punish me for not understanding his directions.

We moved a lot in those days as my father searched for better work and housing, and I went to three different schools in a year. I continued to struggle with English. Then, after first grade ended, my family went back to Afghanistan for the summer. I fell in love with Logar, but I completely forgot all the English I’d learned in school!

I remember on the morning of my first day in second grade, I could only recall 10 letters from the alphabet. I was way behind and on track to be left back. But then I had the fortune of meeting Mrs. Lung.

Mrs. Lung sat with me almost every single day after school, giving me extra lessons in reading and writing so I could catch up with the rest of the class. By the end of the year, I’d learned to read and write, and by third grade, I was winning awards for reading comprehension.

After that, my family moved a few times more and I lost track of Mrs. Lung. For years afterward, all throughout high school and college, I tried to find Mrs. Lung to thank her for everything she’d done for me. I searched google and social media. I called my old school and visited the district office. But I kept hitting dead ends.

But a few years earlier, someone reached out to me on Facebook.

Because of Mrs. Lung’s encouragement, I became a teacher two years ago.

Melati and Isabel deeply love their home on the island, surrounded by tropical rain forests, green fields, and a vast ocean. Enjoying a swim at their local beach was once a daily pleasure for them. But when Melati was fifteen, and Isabel just ten, the sisters started to lose their enthusiasm for swimming in the waters near their borne. More often than not, plastic bags would be around them as they swam and some were scattered on the beach. They got really upset about that.

Melati didn’t think much about it until one day her teacher gave a lesson on some world heroes. Each of those people had sparked movements of positive changes in the world. They believed in the impact they could have and they did inspire more people to do something meaningful. After school, Melati walked home slowly in silence, concerned about the vast amount of plastic rubbish on the beach. The heroes crossed her mind. If they could do it, we could do it too, she thought. The idea lit her up. She couldn’t wait to share what she thought with Isabel and quickened her pace.

“So many plastic bags around! The beach is dirty and messy! It’s so terrible! We have lost the clean and beautiful beach. Can’t we do something to get it back?” Melati said heartily. Isabel felt a bit puzzled at what to do, but she also had a strong desire to do something. Picturing a beach as fascinating as before in mind, the pair jumped with joy.

They talked a lot, anxious to know how Dad and Mom would respond to their ideas. That night when the family sat by the dinner table, the sisters eagerly got their ideas across. While Mom and Dad listened to the girls carefully, their eyes shone. “How amazing that would be! We are so proud of you!” Dad exclaimed. Mom came up, gave them a thumb up and hugged the sisters.

Melati and Isabel decided to make a positive impact straight away.

One month later, Melati received a call from the local newspaper.

Chloe was 83 years old and lived by the ocean shore in a big beautiful house. She wished her son Steve would visit her, even if for only a day. Of course, the young man had a family of his own now, a darling little daughter Eva, and a business to take care of. Steve got on video calls with Chloe every other day. However, Chloe thought of her son and granddaughter, wishing she was with them. One day, Chloe heard sounds from the neighboring house. Chloe looked through the window and was delighted to see that she had new neighbors.

One morning, when Chloe woke up and walked along the shore, she heard the sounds of water being splashed and the sound of children laughing wildly. She followed the sound and was concerned on finding the twins from the neighboring house standing knee deep in ocean water. Something didn’t feel right. “Why would anyone leave their kids unattended on the shore?” Chloe thought. She grabbed the kids’ hands and walked them to their home. As Chloe opened the door, she found the young mother lying unconscious on the kitchen floor. Chloe didn’t waste a second in calling 911.

The first responders managed to revive (恢复) her consciousness on the spot. “My boys! Ralph! Ray!” the woman cried out to her kids as the ambulance took her away. Chloe said, “Don’t worry. Everything will be alright. I’ll take care of your sweet boys.” She kept her promise and looked after the kids like a grandmother. She took Ralph and Ray in and let them sleep in the bedroom that was specially made for her granddaughter Eva.

It was during these days that she knew that the boys’ father died of illness. Chloe knew that the neighbor, Phoebe, had been trying to make ends meet by selling sweaters and socks that she knit. Looking at Phoebe’s children eat and drink with such joy, she realized how much she longed to see her little Eva. By the time Phoebe came home from the hospital, the kids had already started calling Chloe “Grandma”.

Phoebe was very moved and struggled to find the words to thank her elderly neighbor.

One Thanksgiving, when Chloe and the Phoebes were talking, Chloe’s door was knocked.