4 . When reading, my mother likes to slice a paragraph or a sentence out and attach it to the wall of her kitchen. She picks boring sentences that puzzle me. But I prefer copying favorite bright lines into a journal in soft, gray No. 2 pencil, word by word.

She doesn’t know any of this. There's nothing shocking: for our chatting. we seldom begin certain conversations though we talk on the phone weekly, sometimes making each other laugh so hard that I choke and she cries. But what we don't say could fill up rooms. Fights with my father. Small failures in school. Anything that really upsets us.

My mother has never told me “I love you, Lisa.”—as if the four-word absence explains who I am—so I carry it with me, like a label on me. The last time she almost spoke the words was two years ago, when she called to tell me a friend had been in hospital. I said, “I love you, Mom.” She stopped for a while and then said, “Thank you.” I haven't said it since, but I've wondered why my mother doesn't until I've found a poem that supplies words for the blank spaces I try to understand in our conversations:

Don’t fill up on bread. I say absent-mindedly. The servings here are huge.

My son, middle-aged, says: Did you really just say that to me?

What he doesn’t know is that when we’re walking together, I desire to reach for his hand.

It's humble, yet heartbreaking. After copying it down in my journal, I emailed it to mom, adding “This poem makes me think of you.” My mother doesn’t read poetry—or at least, she doesn’t tell me, and I felt nervous clicking “Send”.

She never mentioned the poem. But the next time I went home for vacation, I noticed something new in the kitchen fixed to an antique board: the poem. The board hung above the heater, the warmest spot in the kitchen. The poem still hangs there. Neither my mother nor I have ever spoken about it.

7 . How to Write a Good Ending to a Story

Stories present an event or series of events and have a beginning, middle, and end.     1     To write a good ending for your story, there are at least four methods to show the reader why your story is important.

Deciding the End

    2     The middle will include rising tension and your characters’ reactions to the conflict. Most story conflicts will either be person vs. nature, person vs. society, or person vs. themselves. Your final scene should resolve this conflict, whether your characters get what they want or not.

Explaining the Journey

Reflect on the significance of all the events. What themes, ideas, or arguments are you trying to portray through them? You don’t want to tell your reader directly, but you need to show them.     3    —where the reader follows the events flowing in turn—will help you create an ending that makes sense based on what has happened earlier.

Using Action and Images

Use action to show (not tell) what is important. We know that stories full of action, whether written or visual, appeal to all ages. Build your ending with description and sensory images, for sensory details connect us emotionally to the story. Highlight a theme.     4    

Following Logic

Sometimes when we get too excited (or too frustrated) about a story we’re writing, we can forget that events and behaviors tend to follow logic.     5     Most topics—if pursued through logic—will invite your readers into deeper thinking.

8 . Men’s sport has for decades benefited from what investors call a “flywheel effect”. Big broadcast and sponsorship deals throw money into the game readily.    1    . That, in turn, generates even more money the next time around.

Women’s sport has long suffered the opposite phenomenon.    2    With few games available, viewers cannot tune in, and few viewers means little money.

The flywheel may, at last, be starting to turn round.    3    The first quarter of 2022 saw the highest viewership, up by around 50% on 2019, the last full year before the pandemic. Women’s sport is resisting a general trend for people to watch less television. Streaming (流媒体), meanwhile, offers a way to show games without expensive deals with broadcasters, helping to build fanbases.

    4    Viewership of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) in America rose by 50% in 2021 compared with 2020. In February, the WNBA felt confident, raising $75 million and valuing it at $1 billion. The prize pool for this year’s Women’s Championship is $16 million, double the value in 2017.

One big change is that several big rights-holders, including FIFA and World Rugby, now sell, sponsorship rights for women’s events, separately, rather than bonded with the men’s tournaments.    5    

9 . The Stories Behind 3 of the Photos from Our Pictures of the Year

Each year, National Geographic will publish a special issue to showcase some of the impressive images taken around the globe to celebrate the high-quality photography. This year, 49 were selected as the best photos of the year out of millions of images, and the photo editors give a glimpse behind the scenes of 3 images included in 2022 Pictures of the Year annual special issue.

Qaanaaq, Greenland//Kiliii Yüyan

Photographer Kiliii Yuyan is no stranger to documenting the daily lives of native peoples and the issues they face around the world. He commits himself to capturing surprising and unique images for each story while his colleague Mallory has quit in their tracks. In his story, two cousins push strollers (婴儿车) across a snowy plain in Greenland on their way to annual dogsled races. The story itself challenges readers to think about how to treat their ecosystem without destroying it and gives more insight into the daily lives of Inughuit women.

Canary Islands, Spain//Carsten Peter

It’s hard to capture the speed, texture, and sense of danger of lava flowing from a volcanic eruption, but that’s what photographer Carsten Peter achieved with this image. He documented the 85-day eruption for National Geographic, then returned to focus on the damage and on the scientific fieldwork that had been done once the slow-moving lava had cooled.

Minneriya. Sri Lanka//Brent Stirton

Photographer Brent Stirton provided a window into these animals’ lives, which she hopes will increase awareness and stir up sympathy through the photo.

The image was tough to capture not only because Stirton needed to get close to the wild animals for the frame but also because it was a challenging time to work in Sri Lanka. The government was collapsing in economic decline. “I think there’s an opportunity to show people a side of animals they may have not seen before,” she says.

For more pictures and stories, please click the https://www. nationalgeographic.com.