Bobby was getting cold sitting out in his backyard in the snow. Bobby didn’t wear boots; or rather, he didn’t own any. The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and they did a poor job of keeping out the cold.

Bobby had been in his backyard for about an hour already. Try as he might, he could not come up with an idea for his mother’s Christmas gift. He shook his head as he thought, “This is useless. Even if I do come up with an idea, I don’t have any money for a gift.”

Wiping tears from his eyes, Bobby started walking down to the street where the shops were. It wasn’t easy being six without a father, especially when he needed a man to talk to.

Bobby walked from shop to shop, looking into each decorated window. Everything seemed so beautiful but so out of reach. It was starting to get dark and Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly his eyes caught the glimmer (微光) of the setting sun’s rays reflecting on something on the roadside. He reached down and discovered a shiny dime (10美分硬币).

Never before has anyone felt as wealthy as Bobby did at that moment. As he held his newly-found treasure, warmth spread throughout his entire body and he walked into the first store. His excitement quickly turned cold when salesperson told him that he could not buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and went inside to wait in line. When the shop owner asked if he could help him, Bobby presented the dime and asked if he could buy one flower for his mother’s Christmas gift. The shop owner looked at Bobby and his offering ten-cent. Then he put his hand on Bobby’s shoulder, saying. “You just wait here and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

The sound of the door closing as the last customer left pulled Bobby back to reality. All alone in the shop, Bobby began to feel alone and afraid.

It was one of the hottest days of the dry season. We had not seen rain in almost a month. The crops were dying. Cows had stopped giving milk. The rivers and streams were long gone back into the earth. If we didn’t see some rain soon, we would lose everything. It was on this day that I learned the true lesson of sharing and saw the best miracle (奇迹) in my life.

I was making lunch for the family in the kitchen when I saw my six-year-old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. He was obviously walking with a great effort trying to be as still as possible. Minutes after he disappeared into the woods, he came running out again toward the house. I went back to make sandwiches, thinking that whatever task he had been doing was completed.

Moments later, however, he was once again walking toward the woods. This activity went on for over an hour. Finally, my curiosity got the best of me. I crept out of the house and followed him on his journey.

He was cupping both hands in front of him as he walked, very careful not to spill (洒出) the water he held. I stepped closer as he went into the woods. Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He had a much greater purpose, I thought. As I came closer, I saw the most amazing sight. Several large deer stood in front of him. Billy walked right up to them, I almost screamed at him to get away. A huge buck was dangerously close. But the buck neither threatened him nor even moved as Billy knelt down. And I saw a baby deer lying on the ground, obviously suffering from heavy loss of water and heat exhaustion, lifting its head with great effort to drink the water in my boy’s hands.

When the water was gone, Billy jumped up to run back to the house.

This time I joined him, with a small pot of water from the kitchen.

When I was a teenager, my mother had a hard time finding me onstage (在舞台上) in the dancing show. I was always in the back row out of sight, out of mind. Sometimes the stage lights didn’t even reach me, and I ended up dancing in the darkness.

I didn’t start out that way. As a kid, I was a confident dancer. At eleven, though, I put on weight. I still danced with energy every day, but I was always placed in the back row. My teachers didn’t remember my name half the time.

In high school, I found a ballet class that seemed promising. What I forgot was that ballet had even more requirements than other kinds of dance.“ You need to lose weight ”my teacher said. Obviously, I wasn’t t her star pupil. When they cast (为……选派演员) The Nutcracker one year, every single girl in my class was given a role except me. I could do the same moves they could, but I was still the girl from the back row who didn’t have the perfect body shape, and Iwas just not valued. After I saw the cast list, I decided I’d had enough: I walked out of the class and never returned.

Dance was still part of my life, though. I performed in an off-off-broadway show (百老汇演出) during college. I took classes off and on at another school and at my university. Finally, Idecided to start performing in flash mobs (快闪). While I had no interest in making it a career, Ienjoyed my projects.

I ended up doing a big network television show about flash mobs. On the first day of filming, the leaders of the dance team picked the strongest dancers for featured spots (主要的位置). In the audition (试演) I danced well, and I was chosen. The show kept inviting me back.More often than not. I was placed in the featured dancers’ group.

There was only one problem: Though I had fun, I still believed in those teachers from childhood instead of myself. In my mind, no matter what anyone said to me, I still thought that Iwas a terrible dancer.

At one performance, the director of the flash mob company, Staci finally called me out.

I found my co urage and stopped hiding in the back.