My children gifted me a stainless steel coffee plunger (咖啡壶). I couldn’t ________ to use it, looking forward to coffee making for a peaceful day.

As I poured my first cup of coffee, the plunger spilled (洒出) all over the table. ________ no one was around to see my disappointed face! I kept trying, but each morning would see me ________ the coffee. Then I realized that if I poured very slowly there would be no spilling. This was at first a very ________ experience. My normal ________ was to rush through breakfast so that I could get on with my day.

But ________ I learned not only to pour slowly but to enjoy the ________: the smell, the taste, and the stillness of a new day. It helped me to ________ on whether there were other areas of my life I was rushing through. Most of life, it seemed.

I started to leave extra time to do even the most ________ tasks. When shop owners would ________ for keeping me waiting, I’d say, “Not a problem, I’m not in a hurry.” ________ hanging out washing became pleasurable when listening to the birds singing in the trees became part of my ________ . Besides, one of my favorite experiences was spending time with strangers. We sat on the steps, with a cup of coffee in hand, listening to each other’s stories. It was one of the ________ things about living in a busy city, as if the world slowed to a ________ we could both handle.

Stillness and quietness not only slow the pace of life, but also ________ the soul, helping us to enjoy the world’s small pleasures.

It’s been seven months since I arrived in Melbourne, Australia. Things have ______ dramatically in a short time. During the first few weeks, I was nervous but ______ to begin a whole new life here. ______ , after several weeks, the excitement ______ and homesickness set in. It wasn’t a powerful feeling but enough to make me sleepless at night ______ my family and friends back home. How I wished I could have been with them!

Things started to ______ after I spent some wonderful time with my new friends in Melbourne. We practiced languages, talked about cultural differences and saw some places of interest as a ______ . I was deeply impressed by how ______ it is to have such good people in one’s life, because they can make such a(n) ______ .

______ to Melbourne after going home for Christmas felt like returning to a second ______ , a place where I belonged and there were people I cared so much about. With days passing by, more and more people ______ my life; they came with not only kindness and ______ , but also novel ideas and anything that great friends could have.

To travel and visit other places around the world is one of the most ______ things you can do in life. ______ other cultures and learning about the whole world are such meaningful things to do.

With time going by, I understood that my dad knew everything. In my teen years, he taught me things I’d need to know to ________ in the real world. How to drive a manual car. How to ________ your car tyre pressure. The ________ knife to use to cut a melon.

But, ________ I needed him less. I got married and moved away. My husband had most of the knowledge I ________ about the household chores (家务杂活). I loved my dad, of course, but I wondered if maybe he had already shared everything I ________ to know. Maybe I’d heard all his ________. Maybe, after knowing a man for 40 years, there’s ________ left to say.

Then, two years ago, my husband and I ________ with my parents while our house was being repaired. They own a lake house, and Dad asked me to help ________ the bulkhead (隔板) at their dock.

I didn’t baulk (退缩)—it was the least I could do for ________ rent-but I was anxious. It was ________ labour.

But as we put the new bulkhead together piece ________ piece, my dad knowing exactly what ________ where, I looked at him. “How do you know how to build a bulkhead？”“I spent a summer while I was at university building them.”I suddenly realized that maybe it’s not that there’s nothing left to say. Maybe it’s just that I’ve spent my life asking him the ________ questions.

A few weeks later, after moving back, I called my father. We ________ talking about everything. To anyone else, it would sound like a normal ________ between a dad and his daughter. But to me, it was a ________ beginning. I ________ the first part of my life needing to talk to my dad. Now I talk to him because I ________ to.