I watch her and her mother decorate her college dormitory room. Everything is in place, organized and arranged. Her dormitory room nicely accommodates not only her clothes and bric-a-brac, but her _________ as well. I begin to accept that her room at home is no longer hers. It is now ours, our room for her when she _________.

I _________ myself thinking of when I held her in the cradle of my arm, in the chair alongside my wife’s hospital bed. One day old. So _________, so beautiful, so perfect, so _________ dependent on her new, _________ parents. Time marches relentlessly (不停地).

She looks up now, catching me _________ at her, causing her to say to her mother, “Mom, Dad’s looking at me _________.”

The last few days, I touch her arm, her face — anything — _________ that when my wife and I return home, she will not be with us and there will be nothing to __________. I have so much to say, but no __________ with which to say it.

My __________ changed from the day I drove this child home from the hospital. I saw myself __________ that day, and it has led to a lot of places that I would never have found on my own.

She says, “It’ll be all right, Dad. I’ll be home from school __________.” I tell her she will have a great year but I say little else. I am afraid somehow to speak and I only __________ our good-bye hug a little longer, a little tightly.

I gaze into her eyes and __________ to go. My wife’s eyes __________ her as she leaves us. Mine do not. Maybe if I don’t look, I can imagine that she really hasn’t __________; I know that what she is embarking upon (开始) is exciting and wonderful. I remember what the world looked like to me __________ everything was new.

As I walk to the car with my wife at my side, my eyes are wet, my heart is sore, and I realize that my life is __________ forever.

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 talking about life, and I told them about one of my ______ .I said that we must very often give things up as 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 everything! 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 would remember his words and become ______ .If he could replace his great pain with a feeling of love for others, then I should be able to give up my small anger.In this ______, I learned the power of acceptance from my father.

Every New Year’s Eve, we had breakfast at Aunt Dot’s house. Aunt Dot lived in a home with shelves of___ and photo albums she had collected over the years. Colorful pots of plants lined her kitchen windowsills and movie posters for   classics___ the walls in the living room.

Although the food was delicious, my most vivid___ of the meal was the centerpiece that Aunt Dot always ____ on her kitchen table-a set of seven   ceramic (陶瓷的) salt and pepper shakers .

It wasn’t until years later, when I was home during a holiday, that I finally asked Aunt Dot about the ____   centerpiece. She was then eighty-seven years old     and she still___ us to the last breakfast of the year. I had come over early that morning to ____   the meal preparations and Aunt Dot was _____   cooking. Then I asked, “Why do you always put them out on New Year’s Eve morning?”

“Well, my dear,” Aunt Dot said in a ____     manner. “It helps to _____   me that even though the holidays are over, there’s another whole year of them coming. I   have learned over my many years that nothing really___ ; every ending in life is really just another new beginning.” She smiled and continued, “Remember that, my dear.” And I___ .

In the spring of that year, after a short illness, Aunt   Dot ___ . She left her   book _____   to my mom and   the movie posters to my sister, but I was   ______   to       learn   that I got the holiday salt and pepper shakers. I ____   Aunt Dot wanted to     make sure I remembered her___ to life.

Now, I continue Aunt Dot’s breakfast____ at   my   own   apartment.   The   pancakes are never as ____   as Aunt Dot’s,   but the center of the table is covered     with those _____   salt and pepper shakers, reminding us all that every ending is       really just another beginning.