A Book of Thanks

◎Richard Edwards

在這紛繁復雜的生活中，我們可能會碰上各種煩心事，但別忘了，有時候正是在這些微妙的瞬間里蘊藏著無盡的感激之情。或許，我們可以像文中的小馬克一樣，擁有一本屬于自己的感恩記錄。一起踏上感恩之旅吧，用心感知那些被時間淡忘的溫暖，享受生命的美好，發現感恩的力量。

“I feel so1)vexed and out of temper with Ben for breaking my cart, that I really must—” Mark said angrily.

“Do something in2)revenge?” inquired his cousin Julia.

“No, cousin; but I must look over my Book of Thanks.”

“Your Book of Thanks! What is that?” inquired Julia, as Mark turned over the3)leaves of a little book which was nearly full of writing.

“O, here it is!” and he read aloud, “March 8.Ben lent me his new knife.March 10.Ben showed me his new book.”

“And here, again, only the other day: June 19.Ben gave me a new string for my kite.”

“I think I will turn down a leaf there.Ben is a pretty good boy,after all.Don’t you think so, cousin?”

“What do you write down in that book?” said Julia, who had been watching Mark with much curiosity.

“Our teacher told us, last winter, that everybody has some good about him, and that if we would look for it we should find more of it than we expected, and that this would make us happier than to be looking for the bad.

“She also told us that, if we would mark the different acts of kindness shown to us, we should very soon be surprised at the number of them.

“I write them down in this book so as not to forget them.

“When I am cross, or out of temper with any one, I look over this book and it nearly always makes me feel good-natured and on pretty good terms with him again.”

“I wonder what sort of things you put down.Will you please let me look at your book?” said Julia.

Mark handed it to her; and as Julia looked it over she read—

“February 4.Mrs.Wade asked me to spend the day at her house, and she made it very pleasant for me.

“February 9.I broke my sled while sliding down hill.John Jones came along and said he was sorry: he would stop and help me fix it,but was going on an4)errand, and could not.

“March 1.I have been sick two weeks.Mrs.Page came several times to see me.”

“Why do you put father and mother at the head of every page?”

“O, they show me so much kindness that I can not write it down,and so I just write their names.”

“And what is this at the beginning of the book? ‘Every good gift is from above.’”

“That I put there as a sort of title-page.”

My reader, if you, like Mark, should keep a Book of Thanks, don’t you think it would make you more cheerful, contented, and happy?

1) vexedadj.生氣的；煩惱的

2) revengen.報復

3) leafn.紙頁；書頁

4) errandn.差事

“本弄壞了我的車，我很生氣，非常生氣，我想我必須……”馬克氣憤地說道。

“進行報復？”表姐茱莉亞問道。

“不，表姐，我是要好好翻翻我的感恩記錄看一看。”

“你的感恩記錄？那是什么東西？”這時馬克開始翻看一個上面密密麻麻寫滿了東西的小本子，茱莉亞好奇地問。

“哦，有了！”馬克大聲讀了起來，“三月八日，本把他新買的小刀借給我用。三月十日，本給我看了他的新書。”

“這里還有，是另外一天：六月十九日，本給了我一股新的風箏線。”

“我想這一頁可以翻過去了。不管怎么說，本是個好人，我說得對嗎，表姐？”

一直都在觀察他的表姐好奇地問道：“你在這個本子上到底都記了些什么？”

“去年冬天，老師對我們說，每個人都有他的優點，如果我們想發現，我們就會發現他的優點總比我們預料的要多，而且這樣做比我們總去看他的缺點要讓我們自己更加快樂。

“她還告訴我們，如果我們記錄下來每個人對我們的好，很快我們就會驚奇于他們善待我們的次數竟然那么多。

“因此，我把他們所有人對我的好都記錄了下來，以防忘記。

“每次我生別人氣或發怒的時候，我就會翻翻這本記錄本，它幾乎總會讓我平靜下來，再次體會到那個人對我的好。”

“我很想知道你都記錄了一些什么，讓我看看好嗎？”茱莉亞問。

馬克把記錄本遞給了她，她認真地翻看著，還讀出聲來：

“二月四日，韋德夫人讓我在她家玩了一天，我非常高興。

“二月九號，我從山上往下滑雪時，弄壞了雪橇。約翰·瓊斯滑了過來，他對我說看到我的雪橇壞了他感到很遺憾，他希望能幫我修好，但是由于有事他不能這樣做。

“三月一日，我病了兩個星期，佩琪夫人來看過我兩次。”

“為什么在每頁的開頭你都寫著爸爸媽媽？”

“哦，他們對我的好真是太多了，根本寫不完，所以我只在每頁寫上他們的名字。”

“這本記錄本最開始是什么？‘一切美好的禮物從下面開始。’”

“我把這句話寫在這里作為這本記錄本的扉頁。”

讀者們，如果你們也像馬克一樣做一個感恩記錄，難道你不認為這會讓你更快樂、更滿足、更幸福嗎？