I used to spend two years working with children with disabilities. I learned that ______ and threats of punishment would result in a ______. Coming up against their ______ could only make the job harder and their behavior more extreme. I found something that ______, though.

There was a very ______ boy in the school and a teacher who was generally very confident with the children was asked to ______ him. One day the boy joined a session (活动) in the room next to mine but then created a ______. He spent the entire session running ______, hitting and kicking.

I was then working with my students when my co-worker said that this boy’s teacher lost the ______. As we were talking, the boy ran in. I told my ______ that I would take care of him.

I closed the door. He was ______ energy, making a huge mess. But I could see that he was doing all these to ______ me. He needed ______, and this was the only way he knew how to ask for it. So I sat back ______ and kept quiet. Then he ______ and began making a rocket. I talked to him about it. We continued ______ this for a few minutes before I slipped into the conversation:

“So what happened today?”

He told me that the teacher ______ him to do what he disliked. He ______ admitted that he had enjoyed making her run around and saw it as a game. I explained that his teacher was very ______. I suggested that next time he had a session, he talk about what lie hoped to do at the start, which might be ______ for everyone. He agreed and was quiet for a moment.

"Poor woman," I thought. "What does she_______life? Why does God let people live so_______ past their prime(黄金时期)?"

As I thought,_______aged lady entered the shop and sat down with her. Soon the two of them were talking about_______. They talked of how little the shop had_______in 70 years... In minutes the two of them were_______with laughter.

I looked again at the________woman, then in the mirror on a nearby wall,________a picture of myself.

I was putting the________of my life together. She had millions of wonderful________to recall.

She was________the day with a good friend. I was________worried about getting old. She was old but it wasn't________her.

As I left the shop, I thought of my________questions about God letting people live past their prime. Why, that woman was more________and more sensitive than I was.________has not bent her spirit. But I am always filling my mind with something unpleasant.

Perhaps you’re in the middle of a divorce, suffering the loss of a loved one, or facing an illness. Perhaps you have a dream you’ve strived for long, but it still seems out of ______. Maybe you’re ______ a difficult time looking for a job, or you’re working but just getting by, and burdened with ______. Have you ever felt like giving up?

My friend Jorge Perez, a screenwriter in his 30’s, working 12 hours a day, six days a week, has put every extra waking ______ and every penny he ______ into Bodies of Work, an independent TV pilot he wrote, ______, directed and shot. He’s ______ to be a success. When he gets ______, he thinks of the words from Racing in the Rain. “Your car goes where your eyes go. In other words, wherever you focus your attention is where you’re ______, with related consequences. It takes the same energy to focus on positive outcomes as negative ones, with better ______.”

I never knew anyone more realistically optimistic than my own ______ sister, whose dying words were, “I’m not giving up.” Pam ______ Cystic Fibrosis(囊肿性纤维化), lived independently, graduated from college and ran her own daycare before we ______ her to the illness. Pam taught me that even when you are at your most ______ and feeling like you can’t go on, you ______ have the power to choose between ______ or hope, forgiveness or revenge. She supported the words of Viktor Frankl: “When you can’t change your circumstances, you are ______ to change yourself.” 

These people accept their present circumstances and they ______ it. They focus on the best way to move forward and set goals to do so, rather than looking back or blaming others for their current ______. Ultimately, of course, our ______ is a letting go— but until then, don’t give up.