Eleven years ago, the world I was familiar with ended. My _______ was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Over the course of seven months, Bill went from_______ me at tennis to needing my help to go to the bathroom.

It was the_______ time of my life. Maybe not_______. But it was certainly the time when I felt most alive. I _______ that a flat tire or the small complaints of a child with the sniffles (抽鼻子)_______ in comparison with the beauty of sudden laughter, the night sky, the _______ of a bakery. I found I could _______ myself to see more beauty.

In the days after Bill’s diagnosis and brain surgery, being his caregiver _______ me to find clinical trials and talk to different oncologists, which gave me a sense of________. In the later days, it meant being fully present for almost every moment. During his last weekend, a relative________ him. I noticed that she’d changed her appearance, and not in a good way. It was the kind of thought I’d ________ keep to myself. Just then, Bill ________ exactly what I’d been thinking, in that ruthlessly (鲁莽地) truthful way he had, and I found myself________ out loud.

“I could live with this man forever, even________ as much care as he does,” I thought. However, he would be dead in four________!

Eleven years later, I still try to be the ________   I became during those seven months. I try to be a little more ________ and generous, a little more grateful for the small __________ in life. It was my husband’s last, best __________ to me.

Once there was a little girl who had many misfortunes in life and was struggling with problems. One day she felt so upset that she couldn’t help ________ to her father why her life was so ________.

Sensing her ________, her father, a chef, took her to their ________. He asked her to just ________ till he finished everything. He filled three small pots with water and placed each on a burner. Once the water began to ________, he placed a potato, an egg, and some ground coffee beans in each pot. Curious, though, she kept ________ as her father instructed her to do so.

About twenty minutes later, he turned off the ________. The chef turned towards his daughter and said, “See, the potato went in strong and hard but in boiling water, it became soft and weak. The egg was ________, but now the egg became hard. ________, the ground coffee beans were unique. After being ________ the boiling water, they changed the water and created something new.”

Seeing the little girl was still confused, he then ________, “The potato, the egg and coffee beans had each faced the same ________-the boiling water. However, each reacted ________. When hardships come your way, how do you respond? Are you a potato, an egg, or a coffee bean?” Hearing these words, the girl made her choice inside-she would be the ________, which could not only change the whole situation but also change in its own way. After all, life is 10% what happens to you and 90%how you react to it.