2 . I learned how to accept life as it is from my father. ________, he didn’t teach me acceptance when he was strong and healthy, but rather when he was ________ and ill.

My father was ________ a strong man who loved being active, but a terrible illness________ all that away. Now he can no longer walk, and he must sit quietly in a chair all day. Even talking is ________. One night, I went to visit him with my sisters. We started ________ about life, and I told them about one of my ________. I said that we must very often give things up ________ we grow — our health, our beauty, our friends — but it always ________ that after we give something up, we gain something new in its place. Then suddenly my father ________ up. He said, “But, Peter, I gave up ________! What did I gain?” I thought and thought, but I couldn’t think of anything to say. ________, he answered his own question, “I________ the love of my family.” I looked at my sisters and saw tears in their eyes, along with hope and thankfulness.

I was also________ by his words. After that, when I began to feel angry at someone, I ________ remember his words and become ________. If he could replace his great pain with a feeling of love for others, then I should be ________ to give up my small anger. In this ________, I learned the power of acceptance from my father.

Sometimes I ________ what other things I could have learned from him if I had listened more carefully when I was a boy. For now, though, I am grateful for this________.