Postcards from the World

While the sun washed over the grass of my grandmother’s front garden, I sank into one of her armchairs familiar to me. Life, as I knew it, had changed. My beloved grandmother, my Nanny, as a ”parent“ in the absence of my father, had cancer. It was terminal (晚期的).

As she watched Getaway, a Sunday afternoon TV program, she remarked to me that she’d never left Australia and that now she never would. Seeing her restricted to ”travel" by watching TV, I swallowed the sadness that came with knowing that chapters of her life were to be left unwritten.

At work, feeling helpless, I wiped tables and took orders and thought. Hard. The Saturday afternoon lunch rush was not enough to stop me from my thoughts. Collapsed with growing sorrow, I was reminded of the power of Facebook and the collective strength of human sympathy. I raced from the end of my shift to ask strangers on the Internet for help.

My Nanny Del has cancer. It’s terminal and she will never see the world. Please send her postcards so she can see the world from her armchair. I can offer nothing but gratitude.

I resolved not to breathe a word of this; if nothing came, I couldn’t bear to carry her disappointment along with my own. . And if something should wander into our humble little letterbox, I vould consider it a blessing and embrace it gratefully.

Days turned to weeks: Nothing. And Nanny’s health declined rapidly. I was trying to balance my full-time study, babysitting and waiting tables with the tiring responsibility of caring for my grandmother. As I helped Nanny in the early hours of those mornings, she would chat to me, sometimes reflections of her lifetime, and other times, the disturbance caused by medication. She seldom talked about her regret of being unable to travel, but I was still hoping for something.

One afternoon, about six weeks after my Facebook post, a travel-worn postcard arrived in our letterbox.

My dreams of armchair travels became a reality.

Adam lived with his parents in one city while his grandparents lived far away in another city. Adam’s parents usually took their son to his grandparents’ house during summer holiday every year and stayed there for around 20 days. Adam’s grandfather loved him very much and spent a lot of time playing with him. His grandmother always cooked delicious food for him. Adam loved his stay there. This continued for years. The boy grew up over time.

One day Adam said to his parents, “Now, I am old enough to go to grandparents’ house alone. So, please let me go by myself.”

His parents didn’t agree at first but Adam insisted(坚持). They finally agreed. But they were worried about his safety. So, they taught him everything he needed to know to travel alone.

The day came when Adam was to leave for his grandparents’ house. And his parents came to see him off at the train station. When the boy was comfortably seated on the train, his parents got off and waited for the train to leave.

While waiting, the father went to the window and kept talking to his son. He handed his son an envelope(信封) from the window and said, “Son, if you feel afraid on the way, open this and read it. It will help you to calm down.”

The boy kept that envelope in his pocket carefully and said goodbye to his parents. When the train was ready to leave, the boy smiled and told his father, “I remember everything. Don’t worry.”

At every station where the train stopped, people kept coming and going. The boy started feeling a little lonely.

At one station, a big man with cuts on his face got on the train.

Then he remembered his father’s letter.

Lucy is a foreign student in our school. There is a pity that she is going to leave, which make us all very sad. She is a kind-hearted girl, but always offers to help us our English. I remember when I was preparing for a speaking contest two month ago, Lucy spent her spare time teach me for almost three days. I won the first prize in the contest. When I said thanks to her, and she gave me a big smile. I hoped that he can come to China again. I wish her a colorfully and interesting life.

6 . I took my two daughters to a beach to play. We brought an inflatable(可充气的) _______, thinking this would make for a really_______day. And so it did. The two girls played all day in it, but the younger one got_______and was beginning to look pretty_______with too much sun. So I took her to have a_______and placed an umbrella over her as my older daughter_______to play in the boat.

I probably spent too much time with my younger daughter, not_______what was going on in the water. But as I_______, I became concerned as I saw the little boat with my older daughter in it had moved far away from the shore and was moving even_______. I called to her to come closer to the shore and she seemed to be________and doing all she could to ________. But her litter arms were too short to reach into the water. All she could do was paddle(拨水)________to one side and was just making small________.

I________as far into the water as I could － telling her what she should do but with no   ________. I stood watching her go farther. I couldn’t believe I was________this. Then I swam until I no longer knew or could________that I had legs. But I just kept an eye on her and believed I was able to save my daughter. I saw my hand catching the edge of that small boat. On the way back I was________the boat and calming her down.

We made it back to the shore and my life was forever changed by that________. I learned that if we can________ourselves, we’ll have all the strength(力量) we need.

7 . When I was a child my father taught me five words that I’ve used all my life—in my acting career, as a mother, in my business activities. If I _________ that I was afraid of the dark, or if I seemed worried about meeting new people, Dad would say, ''Stand porter to your _________.''

A porter is a gatekeeper, who stands at a door _________ people in or out. Dad would get me to _________ myself stopping destructive things—such as fear—at the door, _________ saying ''Come in'' to faith, love and self-assurance.

As an actress, before I went on camera, I'd make sure anxiety _________ and confidence in my ability came in. As a mother, when I was _________ about my children, I would try not to let worry in but would _________ my mind with trust in them.

Of course, there were always times I'd _________ those words.

In 1972 my husband, Fillmore Crank, and I opened the doors to our own __________ in North Hollywood. This was a new business venture for us, and it was a lot more __________ and complicated than we had __________,

We were on call 24 hours a day. Something was always going __________. Electricity went on the blink, food wasn't delivered, employees called in sick. Once, a flu epidemic __________left us with no maids. Fillmore gave me a __________：scrub floors or do the laundry. For 10 days I folded enough king-size sheets to __________ the whole state of California.

Then there was the __________ crisis. The price of gasoline doubled, and tourism in California __________. How could we fill our beds? What if we kept losing money? What if we failed? Fear and worry were sneaking in. But I caught them just __________. I stood porter.

I stood in the door of my mind and sent fear packing.

These days at the hotel, whenever fear tries to __________, I just smile and point to the sign that reads No Vacancy.

8 . My mother has a dining table which sits right in the middle of her dining room. It was once buried beneath piles of papers—magazines, articles, copies of schedules for vacations she took back in the 1990s, and baby pictures of grand children who are now paying off their college loans.

My brother Ross and I recently flew to New York to visit my mother. “Mom, why don’t we go through all that stuff?” Ross said. “No. Don’t touch it!” My mother said. The next afternoon, when she couldn’t find a bill she needed, Ross suggested it might be put somewhere in the dining room and that we find it together. “Besides,” he said, “all those papers are clearly stressing you out.” However, my mother just said, “Are you boys hungry?” And then she seemed to have lost herself in deep thought.

On our last night there, my mother walked up to us with a small pile of unopened mails, which she had collected at the western edge of the dining table, and said, “Help me go through these.” “Sure,” I said. When we had succeeded in separating wheat from chaff (谷壳), I asked, “Would you want to deal with another little pile of papers?”

My mother led the way, walking into the dining room the way an animal manager might be while entering a cage with tigers in it. Ross and I came in behind her and suddenly he reached for a pile of the papers on one side of the table. “No!” my mother said sharply. “Let’s start at the other end. That’s where the older stuff is.” Finally, we threw 95 percent of the stuff into paper shopping bags. Then I asked what she wanted us to do with them, she surprised us all by saying, “Put them in the incinerator (垃圾焚化炉).”

When I returned home, inspired by the visit to my mother, I sorted out my own accumulated(累积的) piles of papers, sold or gave away half of my possessions, and moved into a smaller house. It seems that my life has been cheaper and easier since then. And it proves that a small change does make a big difference.

9 . Geraniums of Love

As the fifth of seven children, I went to the same public school as my three elder sisters and brother. Every year, my mother went to the same ceremony and had parent-child interviews（亲子交流会）with the same teachers. The only thing different was the child. And every child _______ an old

Third grade was the first time that I was allowed to take part in the plant sale. I wanted to surprise my mother. _______, I didn't have any money. I went to my eldest sister and _______ the secret, and she gave me some money. When I arrived at the plant sale, I carefully made my _______. I agonized（苦苦思索）over that decision, _______ each plant to ensure that I had indeed found the best geranium. The moment I had smuggled it home, with the help of my sister, I _______ it on the upstairs neighbor’s porch. I was very afraid my mother would find it before Mother's Day, but my sister assured me that she wouldn't, and _______ she did not.

When Mother's Day arrived, I was bursting with pride when I gave her that geranium. I remember how bright her eyes were, and how delighted she was with my _______.

The year I was fifteen, my younger sister reached third grade. In early May, she came to me full of wonder and secrecy and told me that there was going to be a plant sale at school and she wanted to __________ our mother. Like my __________ sister did for me, I gave her some money and off she went. She arrived at home full of __________ excitement, the geranium hidden in a paper bag __________ her sweater. “I looked at every plant,” she explained, “and I know I got the __________ one!”

I helped my little __________ hide that geranium on the upstairs neighbor's porch, assuring that our mother wouldn't find it before Mother's Day. I was there when she gave my mother the geranium, and I watched them both bursting with pride and __________. It was like being in a dream I had already dreamed. My mother noticed me __________, and she gave me a soft secret smile. Shocked and puzzled, I __________ back. I had been wondering how my mother could __________ to be surprised at this gift from her sixth child. But as I watched her eyes light up with delight as she was __________   with that most precious gift, I knew she was not pretending.

10 . Not long ago, a good friend of mine asked me to help him in a halfway house in Nashville. I agreed and made my way there one evening.

When I got there, I sat with my friend and talked about how he ended up there. As we talked, another man came up, lighting up his cigarette as he sat down. He had dark, leather skin, and looked like he had endured the sun, the rain, and the wind for long, long time. I couldn’t tell how old he was, but I was sure that he was younger than he looked.

Through a bit of conversation, I found out that he had been on the streets for many, many years.

Without my asking, he started describing life as a homeless man. How he got food; how he stayed warm; how he got money. And he told me something that caught my attention.

He said, “You want to know how I keep my stuff safe at night?”

“Sure, “ I replied.

“I put it up in the trees.”

“Why is it safe in the trees?” I asked.

“The homeless are always looking for treasure on the ground--- coins, something someone’s dropped, half-smoked cigarettes. I know if I put my stuff in the trees, they’ll never find it because they never look up. Never. “

Profound words from an unexpected place. And his message is for all of us.

We all have our particular search. We’re looking for treasure on this earth. But what we are REALLY looking for is right there above us. There’s really nothing we need on the ground.

In fact, it’s surrounding us.