I needed to pay my internet and television providers bills and normally, I use my cellphone to pay them or I'd also get on my bicycle and ride up to their office to pay them. But on this day, I'd walk there to have lunch with my mom.

On my return route,¨ Miles, it's Trevor, "a rider called. He was a teammate I had played floor hockey with a few years back. He told me he was just out testing motorcycle, as later that day he was going to take a trip down to Salt Lake City by“. Trevor was going to a conference about a rare disease. This rare disease had taken his own six-year-old daughter and he needed to learn more, to advocate, and to help others here in Canada.

We hugged and then went on our separate ways. As l was shaking up my drink of health, I ran into Grant - another one of my floor hockey team mates. He was out for his daily six-mile run on his lunch break.

“Man, you are Miles !”he replied. He hadn't seen me in a few months and my shoulders, arms, and chest were larger and far more detailed, thanks to the help of my personal trainer. And now they matched my biking legs. I was also eight pounds lighter at 170 pounds.

After a visit there I returned home. And I was lost in thought. It is easy to pay a bill online but I would have missed so much, including my beautiful moment with Trevor. Take the step. Go the extra mile in your life. You'll never know what is waiting for you along the way, or what you will discover of yourself, of others.

“You like pottery (陶艺) more than you like science,” a family member said. I knew the comment was made lightly, but I felt frustrated and disappointed. I had worked so hard to achieve a balance between my scientific and artistic pursuits. Why was my creative side still seen as a weakness and a disturbance, in opposition to my science?

As a little girl, I created art by breaking up eggshells, dying them, and gluing them to a cloth. I also conducted science experiments with my mom, a high school science teacher, on the back porch. In college, I loved my chemistry courses and research work, and I regarded cooking as my creative outlet, hosting weekly dinner parties for friends.

Yet I heard time and again that creative expression and science were not possible together. When my college roommate concluded with a personality test that I was the “creative” type, the rest of my friends said that couldn’t be right, because “I was a scientist and therefore was not creative.” As I was preparing for graduate school and studying for the chemistry GRE test, I realized I talked about science the same way I would paint a picture, explaining concepts in broad strokes (粗线条地) — in part because I struggled to remember technical scientific terminology. I worried my way of thinking wouldn’t fit in with “proper” scientists. In the end, though, my desire to pursue a scientific career won out. I figured I would continue to find a way to balance my research with my creative pursuits, regardless of what others thought.

When in graduate school I found pottery, which I could pursue on evenings and weekends. After my first class, I was attracted. It has inspired me to more intentionally mix my art with my science. I keep a notebook at my lab table filled with words of mug (马克杯) designs inspired by my experiments. Through the challenge of getting my paper into its core concepts in such a way that it could be displayed on a mug, I gained a better understanding of my project. Pottery has now turned into a way for me to train my brain to be creative and think outside the box.

Life is difficult.

What do you think about life? Maybe most people say that life is difficult. But life is no longer difficult once we truly understand and accept it. Most people do not fully see this truth. Instead, they complain about their problems and difficulties as if life should be easy. It seems to them that their difficulties represent a special kind of suffering especially forced upon (强加于) them or their families, their class, or even their nation.

What makes life difficult is that the process of facing and solving problems is a painful one. Problems, depending on their nature, cause us sadness or loneliness or regret or anger or fear. These are uncomfortable feelings, often as painful as any kind of physical pain. And since life causes an endless series of problems, life is always difficult and is full of pain as well as joy.

Yet, it is in this whole process of solving problems that life has its meaning.

Problems are the serious test that tells success from failure. When we desire to encourage the growth of the human spirit, we encourage the human ability to solve problems, just as in school we set problems for our children to solve. It is through the pain of meeting and working out problems that we learn. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Those things that hurt instruct.” It is for this reason that wise people learn not to fear but to welcome the pain of problems.