A Blessing From A Homeless Person

On the way back from work every evening, more often than not, there would be a homeless man standing at the exit of the freeway. He seemed to be in his late 40s, but was probably a little younger. Although wearing ill-fitting clothes and a mismatched pair of shoes, he seemed neither scruffy nor gloomy. With a huge grin highlighting his face, he always waved at every car and sometimes almost danced, which made the thick moustache appear “stylish” and even adorable.

Every day after work I would remember to gather any spare change, and put it aside to give him if I saw him. A feeling of joy would come over me every time I caught sight of him while coming down the ramp. He did have that effect. I’d quickly roll down my window and give him the coins. Occasionally the red light would be on for a minute and we would ask each other about our day. His answer would always be the same— “I’m blessed!” I knew what his answer was going to be every time, yet I would still ask just as if his words could work their magic on me. It amazed me that even in his situation of being homeless he was so positive, and his answer would always remind me how blessed I was: a single mother of four amazing kids, with a place to call home and a job to provide for my family.

One day I was called into my boss’s office and informed that I was being laid off due to the depressing economy. This came as a nasty shock for a single mother whose big family survived on this salary. A feeling of helplessness and grief engulfed me, then followed by endless worry. For the rest of that day, all I could think of was “How am I going to provide for my kids? How am I going to pay rent? And what am I going to do?”

Needless to say, I was very sad and upset on my way home that day.

You see that day he gave me more than a dollar bill; he taught me a valuable lesson.

A Little Boy

A little boy selling magazines for school walked up to a house that people rarely visited. The house was very old and shabby and the owner hardly ever came out. When he did come out, he would not say hello to his neighbors or passers-by but simply just glared at them.

The boy knocked on the door and waited, sweating from fear of the old man. The boy’s parents told him to stay away from the house, and a lot of other neighborhood children were told the same thing from their parents.

Dusk found the boy lingering on and hesitating what to do. As he was ready to walk away, the door slowly opened. “What do you want?” the old man said impatiently. The little boy was very afraid but he had a quota (定额) to meet for school with selling the magazines. So he got up the courage and said, “Uh, Sir, I am selling these magazines and, uh, I was wondering if you would like to buy one from me.”

The old man just stared at the boy without a word. The boy could see inside the old man’s house and saw that he had dog figurines (小雕像) on the fireplace mantle. “Do you collect dogs?” The little boy asked. “Yes, I have many collections in my house. They are my family here and they are all I have.” The boy then felt sorry for the man, as it seemed that he was a very lonely soul.

“Well, I do have a magazine here for collectors. It is perfect for you. I also have one about dogs since you like dogs so much.” The old man was ready to close the door on the boy and said, “No, boy. I don’t need any magazines of any kind, now goodbye.”

The little boy was sad that he was not going to make his quota with the sale. He was also sad for the old man being so alone in the house that he owned. The boy went home and then had an idea. He had a little dog figurine that he got some years ago from an aunt. The figurine did not mean nearly as much to him since he had a real live dog and a large family.

The little boy headed back down to the old man’s house.

From that day on something changed inside the old man.

3 . From my second grade on, there was one event I feared every year: the piano recital(独奏会). A recital _________I had to practice a boring piece of music and perform before strangers. Each year I would ask my father if I could skip the recital “just this once”. And each year he’d shake his head, saying something about building self-confidence and working toward a(n)_________So it was with really great_________that I stood in church one recent Sunday, video camera in hand, and watching my 68-year-old father sweating in his shirt before_________to play the piano in his very first recital

My father has had a(n)_________to play music since childhood, but his family was poor and couldn’t afford lessons. He could have gone on regretting it, as too many of us do. But though he was rooted in his past, he wasn’t _________there. When he retired three years ago, he_________his church music director to take him as a student.

For a moment after my father sat down at the keyboard, he simply stared down at his fingers. Has he forgotten the_________? I worried, remembering those split seconds _________ago when my mind   would go blank (空白的) and my fingers would__________ .But then came the beautiful melody(旋律), from the__________fingers that once baited(装饵于)my fishing lines. And I__________ he had been doing what music teachers always stress:__________the music and pretend the others aren’t there.

“I’m__________of him for starting something new at his age,” I said to my son Jeff. “Yeah, and doing it so __________,” Jeff added.

With his first recital, my father taught me more about courage and determination than all the words he used those 30-plus years ago.

5 . Zhao Yuan, who was a dance teacher, lost one leg in an accident at the age of 24.______she had to use a wheelchair, and leave her______ position and started to make a living in business. She opened a hotel in her hometown and used some of her earnings to help_____for the college cost of 13 poor students.

In 2020, she set up an offline sales platform called Good and Fresh, which mainly sold goods produced by Zhao’s disabled friends. ______ the pandemic (疫情), however, Good and Fresh   _______making money, so Zhao ______ online sales instead.

She became a livestream host on social media platforms, ______ the sales of goods like brown sugar, sweet potato flour and honey that her friends made. Although Zhao Yuan, who only had one____ , had to deal with her own disability, she had made her business succeed in creating a______ in e-commerce (电子商务) and had helped more than 2,000 other_______ people sell agricultural products. Everything she sold came from 55 agricultural centers around the province_______ by the disabled. She had also trained 57 hosts, all of whom were disabled.

With the_______ of her business, Zhao has set up the Good and Fresh Agricultural Science and Technology Development Co., of which she is______ . She is planning to______ another 1,000 hosts, and hopes that they will also be able to achieve their personal and social______ through work, just as the way she is doing.

7 . My wife and I moved into our home two years ago. We had a yard with a lot of ________. Very often when we have flowers, Denise or I would plant some between the rocks, just to add some ________ to the area.

Last summer, I found a tiny little plant in the yard that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise said she didn’t either.

We decided to let it ________ growing until we could find out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the ________ plant, it appeared to be a sunflower. I decided to ________ the weeds (杂草) around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something ________.The sunflower had not ________ where I saw it begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the ________.

That’s when I ________ that if a tiny little sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. If we ________ ourselves like that little sunflower, we can reach where we ________ to go and get what we need for growth.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the ________ to achieve our goals. Like the sunflower, it knew it had the ability to get over the rocks because it had ________ in itself that it would succeed. Stand tall like the sunflower and be ________ of who and what we are, and then the environment will begin to ________ us. We will find a way to go under or around any “rocks” in order to reach our goals.

8 . I was riding my special motorbike this past weekend and stopped at a store. As I was getting my wheelchair off the back, a man watched me from his car and I noticed a wheelchair in his back seat. We spoke for a moment and I asked him about the wheelchair. He answered that it was for his daughter. “Well, do you think she would like to go for a ride on my motorbike with me?” I asked. He seemed amazed that a total stranger would ask him this. He thought about it for a second and said, “OK, as long as I can follow you.”

He introduced me to Amy and he sat her on my back seat. Her father followed me for a few miles and she talked non-stop about what she wanted for Christmas.

As we came back to the store she said, “This ride is the best Christmas present I could ever receive. I have been in a wheelchair my whole life and didn’t know I could do this.” Then she turned to him and said, “Oh Daddy, I’m going to be OK. Mr. Bryant does all kinds of things — and I will, too.” Her father hugged me and said, “I was sitting here praying for a gift for Amy that would encourage her. She often felt that her life was boring compared to other children. God answered my prayer (祷告) just now. Now I pray that God will bless you for your gift to Amy today.” Being kind and thoughtful to others, we can be an answer to prayer.