It started with a dogwood (山茱英) tree.

I was in Ohio when my mother died on a cold day in February, and everything was ______.A few weeks into my grief (悲痛), my uncle suggested planting a tree in her______. He had visited my parents decades before during a California spring. They drove down a neighborhood street______blooming (盛开的) dogwood trees and ever since, the______of a dogwood reminded him of my mom.

We planted the dogwood in May. Its gray trunk was as thin as my mother's arms. It lay in the______much like her ashes (骨灰) would settle on the rocky soil of the Rocky Mountains five years later.

Planting a living thing to______her hard life that ended too soon soothed (抚慰) my heart. This tree would be a symbol of her, something I could _______despite all I’d lost.

My mother could make anything_______.She possessed not just green thumbs but green hands and a nature that could raise anything but_______

As a young adult, I was never good at cultivation (培养)— opportunities, relationships, flowers._______distance and poor health, my relationship with my mom never got the_______to blossom like I'd hoped.

But my mom’s dogwood grew. Its ______pushed into the hard soil; its white blossoms________like stars every June. This tree gave me hope that life goes on ______the past.

Soon I began buying other plants. Without explanations, these plants______ thrived (旺盛) under my care. And I grew, too, learning how to ______them. So many lessons that nature already knew, that my mother must have known but didn’t have time to ______, I applied to my own life.

A part of me believes this is my mother's ______she gave to me after death — the ability to encourage and celebrate______where there was none, to make flowers appear out of dirt. It is her reminder to find the good in whatever I’m_____ , and a promise that wherever she is, it is beautiful.

Though she has been gone for more than 14 years, I can still find her in my garden.

Just before Christmas, my daughter Katie and I went over to my dad ‘s place to decorate. While we worked on the tree, grand babies Decie and Johnny ______their great-grandfather Papa Cox. Their laughter and ______arguments must have reminded Papa of the past days when my brother and I were just their ______because I saw a twinkle in his 80-year-old eyes.

Hanging the ______decorations on Papa’s tree, I couldn’t help gently touching the very oldest of the glass balls. Those I made sure to ______from the uppermost branches, safely out of reach of tiny hands. When the tree was beautifully dressed and glowing, we bid my dad goodbye with lots of hugs and kisses and ______for home. Later that night, in the quiet darkness, I pulled my ______up close and lay down to rest and remember.

The Christmas I turned 16, while decorating the tree with Mama, I ______dropped and broke a decoration. The old glass ball was blue and its surface began to fall ______; it had been on our tree for as long as I could remember. ______, I bent to pick up the broken pieces and was surprised to find a tiny sheet of paper among the pieces. Unfolding it, I recognized my father’s penciled writing. Lifting my eyes, I saw my mother’s ______expression.

“Your daddy wrote that and ______it in that blue ball during our first Christmas together, just before you were born,” she said with a smile. I wouldn’t have believed it, ______the proof there in my hands. The daddy I knew always looked upon getting the tree decorated as a chore he wanted ______part in. In fact, sometimes he could be a bit of a lazy and mean man around the holidays! And yet this bit of ______paper proved that long ago my daddy had done something apparently romantic at Christmas.

Carefully laying the note aside, I cleaned up the broken pieces, wishing I couldsomehow______ the pieces. “ It’s OK , ” Mama said , encouraging me with a hug. “Just pick out another of the ______ones and folded the note back inside.”

______, as we celebrate the holidays without Mama, who we lost to cancer, my ______becomes more bitter. Each year as I decorate Papa’s tree, I relive the moment I shared with her that winter afternoon and tears of a sadness welled out.

As I carefully handle those old decorations , I love knowing that one holds a ______betweenPapa and Mama—one that was obvious to all who knew them. The note inside one of those old glass balls on Papa’s tree holds he heart of my parents’ marriage in three little words: “I love you.”.

The earthquake(地震) was over and the city was in ruins（废墟）.

I had no choice but to walk home as all the ______ had stopped as a result of the quake. On my way home I ______ an old lady at a bakery(烘焙店) giving out free bread, which made my heart ______. A man was holding a sign saying, “Please use our ______.” He was ______ his house for people to go to the restroom.

My friend, ______ wanted to be of help to others, stood in the cold with a sign "If you don't ______ a motorcycle(摩托车), I'll be glad to drive you home." And then I saw him pick up an old man and drive him all the way to a faraway place!

Then the next day I drove to have my car ______. There was not enough ______ now and many gas stations were closed or had very ______ lines. I got worried, since I was ______ fifteen cars. Finally, when my ______ came, the man smiled and said," ______ this situation, we are only giving $ 30 worth of gas per person. Is that alright?" ______. It's nice that we are all able to ______, " I said. His smile gave me so much comfort.

At the escape center(逃生中心) I saw a man ______ when people brought food to him. It was the first time in three days that food had been brought to their center. However, after he cleaned up the tears, his next ______ surprised me. "I am very ______ that we are provided with food. But people in the city next to us haven't ______ any food at all. Please go to that center as well." Hearing that, I realized there was a bright future on the other side of this ______.