I had gone from being a daughter in my parents’ home to marrying and being a wife. Within a year of marrying, I had a child and a new role— mother. It seemed that I was ________ defined in relation to someone else. I was somebody’s daughter, somebody’s wife, somebody’s mother. So, where was Jane? More ________ who was Jane?

In between having four more children, ________ my husband as he started a business, and serving in our community, I ________ Jane. Sometimes, I wondered if there was anyone to seek. Did I ________ outside my relationship to others? 1 didn’t know.

And then I wrote a short story aimed at children. I typed it and sent it out. To my great surprise, it was accepted. I wrote more stories. Many of them were ________, but I still kept writing. And, in writing, I found my ________. I also found that people listened. I wrote of mothering. I wrote of living with depression. I wrote of living on a ________ budget while my husband’s new business struggled to survive. And thus I became an ________ person, looking for and finding the words inside me. I shared those words with others. I knew that I could make a ________ through those words. Shy by nature, I am afraid to speak in public. However, through my writing, I can ________ those words. I can touch others by sharing my thoughts and feelings, as well as my experiences and struggles.

“I didn’t know you ________ depression,” one friend said after reading my article on living with depression. That opened a(n) ________ between us on how depression can be as weakening as any physical disease. We laughed and cried together as she shared her own experiences. Our friendship ________. At the same time, with my newfound independence increasing I became more confident. Additionally, I had a sense of ________ when I knew I was helping someone else.

I wrote my first poem at the age of seven and showed it to my mother. She read and cried, "What a beautiful poem! " Shyly but_______, I said yes. She poured out her_______."It was nothing short of talent!"

I could hardly wait to_______ my work to my father. I spent quite some time_______for his arrival. I _____ placed it right on my father's plate on the dining table. I was sure he would be able to_______my poem.

At almost 7 o' clock my father burst in. He seemed ______. He circled the dining table, complaining about his employees. "What is this?" He was________for my poem. "Buddy's first poem!" my mother replied. "And it's beautiful, absolutely amaz..."

"If you don't mind, I'd like to decide for myself, "Father said.

I ______my head as he read that poem. Seconds later, I heard him dropping the poem back on the table. Now came the moment of _______.

"I think it's terrible, "he said. I couldn't look up. My eyes were getting _______.

"Ben, these are the first lines of poetry he's ever written , " my mother was saying. " He needs_______ ."

"I don't know why, "my father held his ground. " Isn't there enough awful poetry in the world already?"

I couldn't _______it another second. I ran away from the dining room crying. Up in my room I________myself on the bed and cried the worst of the_____ out of me.

That may have been the end of the story, but not of its _______ for me. I realized how fortunate I had been. I had a mother who said, "I think it's wonderful ! " and a father who drove me to hear" I think it's ______."

Every one of us needs that mother force, from which all________flows, and yet the mother force alone is incomplete. It needs the balance of the force that warns us.

Those _______voices of my childhood ring in my ears through the years, like two opposing winds blowing me. Between the two poles of approval and ______ , both in the name of love, I try to follow my true course.

For me, two of the loveliest words in English are “Life persists”.

I _________ them years ago as a college student, sitting in the library, _________, working on a paper. Out of nowhere, those words came _________ off the page in a quote: “In the midst of death life persists; in the midst of _________ truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists.” 

Suddenly I wasn’t unhappy and impatient any more. Then I called my granddad. I loved to talk with him. And I was _________ to hear what he’d think of it. He had poor hearing, so I had to repeat it a few times, but once he _________ it, he laughed. “All I can say to that is totally _________,” he said on the phone. I told him how glad I was, after a long winter, to finally see spring and _________ to find that quote. “Why is that?” he asked. “Well, spring is a sure _________ that life persists. And it just makes me __________.” 

He laughed again, and then in his lovely voice, he recited to me his __________ “spring time” words: “The desert shall rejoice (欣喜), and __________ as the rose.” 

Many years later, __________ my husband and I drove across a desert with many wildflowers and blooming cactuses (仙人掌), I could almost hear my granddad laughing: “The desert shall rejoice.” 

Life persists, and so do we, in the silence of __________ and the blooming of cactuses; and in the dead of winter and the green of spring. Spring __________ us that we’re alive forever.