2 . I was 40, with two adorable children and a caring husband. And I’m enjoying a challenging but _________ career. Although this is “success”, sometimes I feel my heart asking if this is who I truly am.

The chaos of the family kitchen was _________: the noise of the kettle, pots and dishes, and the conversation _________ while I’m making breakfast. I escaped _________ to my bedroom. Only in silence do I bear the self that is _________ from the children and wonder who that person might be.

So, I journeyed, for the first time in a decade, without my husband or kids. I went with a friend to _________ in Iceland. I hoped the consideration of walking would help me better _________ who I wanted to be. For 6 days, I was absorbed in wild scenery and real weather. The mountains in Iceland rise black and tall into the heavens against the white snow. Looking outside at wild wind and rain and knowing there’s no decision to make _________ the soul. Climbing a mountain against sheets of rain and returning to a tent for a simple meal _________ me how little I actually needed and how strong I felt __________ uncomfortable.

I found __________ in Iceland, and time to consider “the me” outside career and kids as I shared stories with strangers with no __________ past and no expected future. When I stopped talking and just listened, I was surprised at how my __________ changed—I became more generous. I learned generosity can __________ more space and more warmth __________ when there may not seem enough to go around at first glance.

I came home to __________, chaos and love. I know the answer isn’t waiting out there on the top of a mountain or inside my head, however __________ I try to hear; and it isn’t in conversations with other seeking souls. The answer is in front of me with every step on my own life’s __________.

I’m not finding myself, but I’m creating myself. I need the storm as much as I need the quietness. __________ is built under a heavy load. I’m expecting to pick up all of my loads and travel __________.

3 . Before I started high school my parents gave me the greatest gift any teenage boy could ask for: a cell phone. I______ that phone all summer. To me, being connected was more important than being present. So, you can imagine my ______ when I learned what my dad had ______ for my family vacation that year. “This year,” my dad said, “We are going camping!” His excitement was met with a disappointing sigh（叹气）. ______, he wasn’t upset.

The views during the trip were amazing, but none of those mattered to me. My mind was on my phone. I remembered the first time I looked up was for something shocking—my phone had no service. My dad said that it would be ______ until we returned home. I would be ______ in the forest for four days with no way to contact the outside world. I went to bed angry that night. But something ______ when I awoke in the morning. ______ immediately burying my head in my phone, I ______ something else: my surroundings. As my dad and I walked the trails（小路），I felt the weight of tons of stress off my shoulders.

I realized being ______ to nature made me focus more on myself. I let my mind speak to me and listened to my feelings. I had been so focused on staying connected that I hadn’t been hearing my own ______. That was 15 years ago, and I carry that ______ to this day. When I received my first work email. I ______ the reason why my dad chose a campsite with no access to technology. In a world that asks for more connectivity, the need to check up your cell phone becomes stronger. Having my own time is nearly ______ when I can be ______ at any time of day or night. So, I need to work harder.

Whenever I feel my inner self is slipping away, I follow my dad’s guidance. I pack up the tent and drive until my phone shows those two magic words: “no service”.

4 . A Game of Light and Shade

It was a sunny day. I had gone up and down the tower when, outside the door at the foot, a blind man came toward me. In a moment, he disappeared up the stairs. I looked at the sign that said “To the Tower”, and decided to _______ him.

I caught up with him in the ticket office. There I was _______ to see the attendant (工作人员) selling him a ticket as if he were any other visitor. Then, with the ticket in one hand and _______ the wall with the fingers of the other, the blind man reached the stairs _________ to the hallway.

“That man is blind. What would a blind man climb up the tower for?” I said to the attendant, expecting him to show some _______, but he didn’t answer.

“Not the _______ certainly,” I said. “Perhaps he wants to _______.”

I bought a ticket and _______ up the stairs. The man hadn’t gone as far as I _______. A third of the way up the tower, I heard his ________. I slowed down and followed him at a little ________. He stopped from time to time. When he got to the balcony, I was a dozen steps ________. As I reached it, I saw him at the corner of the tower.

At last, after ten minutes, I ________ him. “Excuse me,” I said as politely as I could, “but I am curious to know ________ you came up.”

He smiled. “Coming up the stairs, you will notice how not just light but sun ________ into the tower through the narrow windows here and there, so that you can feel the ________ —the cool stairs suddenly become quite warm—and how up here behind the wall there is ________, but as soon as going opposite a window you can find the sun. There is no ________ so good as this for feeling the difference between light and shade. It is not the first time I’ve come up.”

The blind man seemed quite ________ just like a child who was enjoying his favorite games. He told me the truth that blind men can also find the beauty in life ________ they cannot enjoy the sights of the world.

5 . I have lived in the United States for 30 years or so. I couldn’t fully_________how the concept of   “the pursuit of happiness”_________ in with a super busy life. It was not until I started to grow plants on the balcony of my house on a quiet street in Boston that I had a(n)_________.

Gardening does not come_________ to me. I was not_________ to it as a child. I grew up in a city. My fellow people didn’t seem to_________the absence of green. They lived in apartments and grew flowers in concrete courtyards or on balconies to_________their gardening needs. No one grew herbs or vegetables. Why_________? Fresh produce was a plentiful_________in daily markets nearby. Garlic, ginger were____________as a sign of thanks with the____________of meat.

The first spring after I moved into my Boston____________, I grew my own food. I developed a deeper appreciation for the____________of plants. There were____________along the way: pests; sometimes too much heat, other times not adequate sun. For several seasons, I had tomato troubles. I’d find half-eaten fruit____________. I made a habit, night after night, of moving plants indoors, so I would be the one to____________, not some creature with four paws.

In the____________of home-grown food—seeding, growing, tending, harvesting, cooking—I came to understand a(n)____________version of happiness. It can be a matter of the heart’s____________small steps of satisfaction, resulting from “neither wealth nor greatness” in Thomas Jefferson’s words “but____________and occupation.”

8 . My younger brother would be leaving for college and I was leaving for a new job in Europe. We only had a few precious months left as a family living under the same _________. Everything would change in the _________.

A family of magpies (喜鹊) _________ in our maple tree. This family seemed to be extraordinarily lively. One early morning, the noise was so _________ that my dad went out to see what the birds were doing. He found a young magpie _________ around the yard, flapping (拍打) his little wings and yelling.

Dad looked up in the tree to find Mommy and Daddy Magpie sitting on a branch and glaring _________ at him. He had to do something for the poor little thing. Dad called the zoo for _________. They told him not to _________ it and assured him the baby would learn to fly on its own. Dad no longer _________ the magpie around the yard. He did, however, watch him ____________ from the living room window, just to make sure a cat didn’t turn him into ____________.

The next day I got a ____________ at my summer job. It was from my father. He never called me ____________. He asked me if I saw Morey before I left home—he named the bird Morey.

Driving home from work, I ____________ it wasn’t only about the magpie but also about his own little fledglings (幼鸟) who were ____________ the nest. It was about my brother and me. Dad felt as helpless as the Mommy and Daddy bird watching in the tree. He couldn’t make us fly nor could he ____________ cats once we left the nest.

I got home and found him looking out of the kitchen window with ____________ in his eyes. I ____________ him by saying Morey might have learnt to fly with very good parents raising him.

Soon it was the end of August. Bags were ____________ and it was time for my brother and me to leave the nest. In the end, Dad had nothing to worry about. He ____________ his little fledglings well. And we flew…

9 . A Leap（跳跃）to Honor.

Leaping on a narrow balance beam（平衡木） is not easy. But Lola Walter, a 13-year-old gymnast, is an expert at it.

To perfect her skills, Lola_________for four hours a day, five days a week. At the state championships in March, she finished seventh out of 16 girls.

That’s especially impressive, ___________she is legally blind, born with a rare condition that causes her eyes to shift constantly. She often sees double and can’t _________how far away things are.

When she was little, her mom ___________that even though she couldn’t see___________, she was fearless. So her mom signed her up for gymnastics when she was three. She loved the___________right away and gymnastics became her favorite.

Though learning gymnastics has been more_________for her than for some of her teammates, she has never quit. She doesn’t let her _________stop her from doing anything that she wants to.

She likes the determination it takes to do the sport. Her biggest _________is the balance beam. Because she has double vision, she often sees two beams. She must use her sense of touch to help her during her routine. Sometimes she even closes her eyes. “You have to__________your mind that it’ll take you where you want to go,” says Lola.

To be a top-level gymnast, one must be brave. The beam is probably the most__________for anyone because it’s four inches wide. At the state competition, Lola didn’t fall__________the beam. In fact, she got an 8.1 out of 10---- her highest score yet.

Lola doesn’t want to be__________differently from the other girls on her team. At the competitions, the judges don’t know about her vision__________. She doesn’t tell them, because she doesn’t think they need to know. Her mom is amazed by her__________attitude.

Lola never thinks about __________. She is presently at level 7 while the highest is level 10 in gymnastics. Her   ______________is to reach level 9. She says she wants to be a gymnastics coach to pass down what she’s learned to other kids__________she grew up.

Lola is__________of all her hard work and success. She says it’s helped her overcome problems in her life outside gymnastics, too. Her __________for others is “just believe yourself”.

10 . I believe in miracles (奇迹) because I’ve seen so many of them. One day, a patient was referred to me who was one hundred and two years old. “There’s a ___________ in my upper jaw,” she said, “I told my own dentist it’s nothing, but he ___________ I come to see you.”

Her eighty-year-old son accompanied her. He would ___________ to add something, but she stopped him. She wanted to tell everything herself. I found a large cancer that spread over much of the ___________ of her mouth. A careful examination later ___________ that it was a particularly bad sort of cancer.

During her next appointment, I explained to her the ___________ of the problem. She clasped my hand in hers and said, “I know you’re worried about me, but I’m just ___________.”

I thought otherwise. After considerable ___________ on my part, and kindness on her part because she wanted to ___________ me, she agreed to have me refer her to a cancer surgeon. She saw him, but as I expected, ____________ treatment.

About six months later she returned to my office, still energetic and ____________.

“How are you?” I asked.

“I’m just fine, honey,” she responded ____________ high spirits. “When can I get started on fixing my dentures (假牙)?”

Surprised to see her at all, I answered ____________ “Let me take a look in your mouth and we’ll see about it.”

I couldn’t believe my eyes. The cancer that had ____________ nearly the entire roof of her mouth was gone—only one small area of redness ____________.

I had read of such things happening, but had ____________ seen them with my own eyes. That was my first miracle. Since then I’ve seen many others, because they keep getting ____________ to see. In fact, miracles are daily events for me now. And people are in miracle, ____________ through them we have a chance to know ourselves and to ____________ the miracles of one another.

Since my first miracle, I’ve come to understand that the time and place for a miracle is ____________ we choose to find it.