As a writer I can always tell that life has a sense of humor too，because my best inspirations often come at the most _________ times when I have nothing to write them down on. I can remember once years ago when I was _________ around a lake in the summertime. I smiled and _________. That was when the idea for a new story _________ appeared in my mind. I was still a half-mile away from my car, so I took my pen out of my pocket and started writing it down on my _________.

Later after I had transferred the _________ to paper and was washing the _________ off my hand, I laughed and asked “Life” why he always seemed to speak to my _________ at the strangest times. As soon as I said it, I _________ in my mind: “Because that is the only time you are listening!”

Life speaks to us in the __________ of our souls. Life __________ to us in the quiet of the storm. If you want to hear Life’s inspiration and __________ in your heart and mind, you have to __________ your own noise.

Life is forever ready to love us, inspire us, lead us, and help us to __________ into the people we were meant to be. All we have to do is open our hearts and close our __________. All we have to do is listen.

As usual, Lily bought expensive gifts for her children Alice and Peter before Christmas. Her job kept her busy, and she _________ got to see her children during weekdays. Being a mother, she always wanted to be _________ her children, but she placed her _________ first, thinking earning money was more important.

Lily _________ the gifts in secret and decided to give them a day before Christmas since she had to attend a business meeting the next day. _________, a day later, the meeting got canceled. Lily was _________ she could spend Christmas with her family. Therefore, she decided to _________ a party. Lily sent _________ to all her friends and her father-in-law, Michael. Lily was worried her friends would not feel _________ in the presence of aged people. Later that day, her children noticed the gifts she had bought. Unexpectedly, neither of them seemed __________ to open the gifts.

On Christmas Eve, Lily __________ her friends into her house. However, she felt __________ when she saw Michael walking in. On arrival, Michael gave Alice and Peter presents—some cookie molds (模具)! The two kids ran happily to their grandfather and showed great __________ for his gifts, asking him to bake cookies with them.

All the guests present were moved by the scene. Lily __________ all they want is their parents’ time and __________ not what their parents buy them.

The person left a deep impression on my childhood memory was an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didn’t behave like other doctors I had ever familiar with. He never_________at us for playing in his yard loudly, who had a friendly and gentle_________. Whenever Dr. Gibbs wasn’t on his duty, his hobby was planting trees, and his entire life’s_________was to make a forest. The kind doctor had some interesting_________concerning planting trees.

Never did he water his new trees, which was in contrast to_________opinions. I was so confused that I asked him. He explained that watering plants would_________ them, and each young generation would grow weaker, _________shallow roots. Thus, you had to make things_________for them and their roots would penetrate deeply into soil in _________of water down.__________watering them every morning, he’d__________them with a rolled-up newspaper “Slap! Slap!” to cause the tree’s__________.

Dr. Gibbs__________a couple of years after I left hometown. The other day, I wandered by his empty house, staring at the trees that he planted when he was alive. They are big and robust. However, the trees in my garden under two years of sheltering, they turned into very weak. Whenever a cold wind blew, their branches __________. Hardships seemed to__________Doctor Gibbs’s trees in ways; comfort and ease couldn’t.

Every night before I go to bed, I__________my two sons, standing over them and watching their little bodies. I often pray for them that their lives will be__________. But lately I’ve realized that it’s time to__________my prayer, because life is full of __________, whether we want it to be or not. All the time we pray for comfort, but that’s what we seldom encounter. What we need to do is to pray for deep roots, so when the fierce winds blow, we won’t be__________away.