When I was first married to my wife, I lived and worked in Ontario, moving from small town to big city as I pursued my career as a radio broadcaster. We have two sons, both of whom were born in Toronto, but they moved, with us, to Ottawa when they were quite young. They grew up there, and then, chasing their own careers, they also moved. One went to Canada’s east coast near a city called Halifax and the other headed to the west coast to Vancouver. We had a dilemma; we were left in the middle.

At the time I was still working and my job was in Ottawa. However, as we began to consider retirement we wondered where we should spend our final years. We couldn’t be close to both of our children and there was no telling when they might again relocate. For several reasons we settled on a small town on Vancouver Island. At least we were close to one of them. However, he had his sights set on Hollywood and, when an opportunity presented itself, he left Canada and headed south. I helped him move.

So, there we were, and still are, in our little west coast town. We love our little corner of paradise but we have paid a price. We have not been there for some important events such as the births of two of our grandchildren. We have missed watching each of them grow up; we have missed the normal, noisy households that have young people in them. Our home, while very comfortable, is also very quiet.

Every fall we travel to see the children. We usually fly, first to California to see our son Scott and spend a week or more with him trying to catch up on everything we’ve missed. Then, usually in November, we make the even longer trip east across Canada to see Travis and our grandchildren, who are now teenagers, actually into their twenties. They seldom come to visit us. The distances are just too great and it is costly.

Fortunately, both our boys are doing well and our grandchildren are growing up straight and tall. We love all of them and we are secure in the knowledge that they love us but the reality is that they don’t need us. We have done our jobs and, at least in theory, we can sit back, relax and enjoy the time remaining to us. They have also missed having a set of parents and grandparents around.

Life has been good for our family but we have all paid a price.

When I was 6 years old, my mom bought me a goldfish. His name was King. Some weeks after King arrived we decided to give him some friends, so I ended up with an aquarium(鱼缸) with 15 fish.

Every month, one or two fish would die and my mom used to replace them with new ones. After 3 years I lost interest in the aquarium, and my mom stopped buying new fish. The only fish remaining was King. He lived for 3 years!

Five years ago, when I was 18, I was telling to a friend how long my goldfish stayed with us, when my mom interrupted me and told me the truth, “Son, your fish didn’t live for 3 years. I’ve replaced him every time he died and you never noticed it”.

My mother is creative when it comes to deceiving. If you don’t dry yourself properly after showering, your body hair is going to grow out making you look like a furry bear. she dropped this on a 4-year-old me. The image of looking like a bear scared the living day lights out of me.

Her concept was simple: if you water plants, they grow. Similarly, if you water your body and you don’t dry, your hair grows.

Well played, mom! Well played!

When I was little my Dad told me that pressing the button on the handbrake (手刹) would make the car fly and that he only used it as it was very very dangerous.

Back then I half knew he was joking but now, when I am stuck in awful traffic, I gently touch the button and tell myself it’s always there for me in case I need to use it as a comfort.

The Mayan Indians lived in Mexico for thousands of years. The Maya were so bright that they achieved a lot. They had farms, temples and cities with many buildings. They knew much about nature and the world around them. This knowledge helped them to live a better life than most people of that time.

In ancient Mexico there were many small clearings in the forest. In each clearing was a village with fields of crops around it. The Maya planted seeds after they cleared the land. A farmer was able to grow crops that produced for several people. But not every Maya had to be a farmer. Some were builders or priests (祭司)．

The Maya believed in many gods. They built large temples to honor them. Skillful workers built cities around these temples. It was difficult because they had to carry all of the building materials themselves. Today, many of these ancient Mayan cities and temples are still standing.

Although the Maya worked hard to build the beautiful cities, very few of them lived in them. Usually, only the priests lived in the cities. The other people lived in small villages in the forests. Their houses were much simpler. Most Maya lived a simple life close to nature.

Around the year 800, the Maya left their villages and beautiful cities, never to return. No one knows why this happened. They may have died from a deadly disease. They may have left because the soil could no longer grow crops. The lost secrets of the Maya are still beyond the reach of modern people. They are still one of our greatest mysteries.