The best way I can think of to describe this situation: We finally have time to stop and smell the dandelions (蒲公英).

Technically dandelions are weeds, so they don't often_______ in any kind of decorations. When I pass dandelions in my lawn, my reaction typically is to not _______ them at all, or think we really need to_______ the weeds. But for the past couple of days, my kids have been_______ by these little yellow weeds. They have filled my pockets with them, and we have even smelled them. We can be bothered by the weed and_______ by the weeding. But we are still giving it our _______ and looking at it for a glimmer of(一丝)good.

While before we may have been too _______ to smell the dandelion, now, with the spread of COVID-19, we are forced to stay at home and _______ and appreciate it. In fact, I've _______ a great deal about dandelions in the past several days. Like that they are one of the first food sources for bees in the spring, and are __________ to eat, even nutritious. These little weeds are amazingly __________ , but I had __________ stopped to think about it before.

I'm __________ the days when we can __________ our friends and family again, and honestly even a handshake with a stranger sounds nice. I can’t wait for a time when we can go outside without__________and send our healtheare workers out into the world safely. Yet, right now we have the time to smell the weed. It's a forced __________ to consider all the things we could or should have been doing all along __________ rushing off to the next big important thing.

As I dig a dandelion out of my pocket and let out a sneeze (喷嚏), I realize this isn't fun, but there are pockets of __________. Dandelions don’t smell like roses but they are __________ when you really look at them and important when you really think about them.

When this is all over, I hope I will still __________ to stop and smell the weeds.

The malls were filled with people seeking Christmas gifts. Behind the ________ aspect of shopping for gifts lies the idea of caring, being attentive to the desire of special people in our lives. ________, to use a well-worn play on words: it is our presence, not our ________, that truly counts.

Giving attention to each other is, to a large extent, what human civilization is ________. This perhaps explains the runaway success of social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook. ________ we use such sites for “micro blogging”, “idea voicing” and “status updates”, the reality is that we are often doing no more or less than fulfilling our basic human drive for attention exchange.

I friend you, you friend me. The ________ ease with which we can now get and give attention is why many people appear overly ________ to their smart phones. It is also a vicious(恶劣的) ________. As even more people are busy exchanging attention online, there is ________ less attention to be paid in the real world, which forces more people to seek their attention exchange online, or else risk attention-starvation.     

The very nature of attention exchange is being rapidly ________, and there is a danger that some of us will develop unhealthy practices. Just ________ eating red meat every day is a bad idea, so it is with too much attention exchange. The ________ consequences of our technological advancement in food production are highly visible: heart disease, diabetes and obesity. The consequences of our changed attention exchanges will be psychological and social, and so may take longer to ________, but they will be equally damaging.     

Face-to-face attention is becoming ________, and therefore more valuable. And it is a gift that can be given ________.

Accept life as it is. I learned how to do it from my father.________, he did not 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 ________about life, and I told them about one of my _______. I said that we must very often give things up ________we grow — our youth, 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 _________! 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 irritated (愤怒的) at someone, I ______remember his words and become ________. If he could replace his great pain with a feeling of love for others, then I should be________to give up my small irritations.In this _________, I learned the power of acceptance from my father.

Sometimes I _________what other things I could have learned from him if I had listened more carefully when I was a boy. For now, though, I am grateful for this one _________.