March is my mother’s birthday month. This year she would have turned a hundred and ten. She lived through two world wars and the Great Depression, which she spoke of with pain and sorrow.

Like so many, her family lost all their money when the economy collapsed. My mother, then in her first year of college, had to give up the education for she so desperately wanted to help support her mother, an immigrant with few survival skills. As a smart and fearless woman, my mother eventually enrolled in secretarial school and became the private secretary to a bank president. Later, she got a job as a lab technician at a local hospital.

I wonder where she turned for support and comfort, and what belief she had. My mother didn’t have the opportunity to take advantage of modern psychology or mental practices. I want to ask her what her anchors（支柱）were when she was overcome with difficult emotions. I absolutely believe that she would say, “I only focused on my job.” These would have been her anchors. She believed “heaven blesses the hardworking”, which is undoubtedly true and surely a tried-and-true method that many of us use when we feel bad.

It strikes me that this may be a very good time to take a minute to sit down to think about some questions. What is the anchor in your life? Of course, different people have different anchors. When you feel frightened, anxious or frustrated you should work hard, which can help you forget your troubles. Focusing on your job and working hard are much better than doing nothing but mourning your misfortunes in hard times.

Facing the chaos and sufferings in work and life, I get really frustrated and puzzled now and then. My mother’s lessons are my lessons. As her daughter, I’ll take advantage of her methods to overcome the difficulties I meet.

Produced by Hunan Satellite TV, Where Are We Going, Dad? invites five male celebrities from different fields and their children to spend quality time together in new environments while accomplishing various survival tasks.

Since it first aired in January, 2013, Where Are We Going, Dad? has been sweeping the whole nation and has become Chinas most popular show averaging more than 600 million viewers each week and 640 million downloads online. Even the China Daily, the official mouthpiece of the Chinese government praised its success, “The deep affection on display in the show is heart-warming. But what accounts for the show’s popularity?

Part of the appeal is the chance to peek into the lives of popular Chinese celebrities and their children. Audiences are delighted to watch the failed attempts of celebrity dads making dinner, combing hair, and disciplining children. At the same time, the cute kids themselves and their authentic and entertaining behaviors are very impressive and attractive.

“Another reason for the success of the show lies in the fact that it is a reexamination of the father’s role in traditional Chinese culture,” said the general director of the show. In a society. Still influenced by the concept that “men rule outside and women inside”, many Chinese fathers are poor at expressing their feelings toward their children. Usually they appear strict and distant. But on the show, we see fathers are much gentler on their kids and more involved in their upbringing. This show raises an important question for modern Chinese society — what is the role of fathers in today’s China?

A fascinating part of the show is that you can see many parenting styles. The five fathers on the show all have very diverse parenting styles, which is great because it shows people there isn’t just one way to raise a child. But Chinese parents increasingly realize that discussing and respecting their children’s choices may be a more appropriate way to prepare them for modern society. Meanwhile, the show can remind adults of their own childhood and the love of father. For those parents, they will rethink their own responsibility as parents and understand their kids better.

My friend Gwen posted a photo yesterday on her social page. The photo was of a Christmas tree made from carefully-placed books. It was very clever. After doing a little research, I found that making Christmas trees from a pile of books is popular right now, especially at libraries.

The Inglewood Library in Los Angeles created a tree from little used books using red books on the bottom to copy a tree skirt and green books for the tree itself. Other examples are from the Gleeson Library in San Francisco and a small bookstore window in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. One of the great things about using books to create a decorative Christmas tree is that there is no waste. After Dec 25, the books just go back on the shelf.

I couldn’t find any specific instructions online with tips for building a tree out of books, but it seemed pretty simple. So last night, my 9-year-old son and I emptied several shelves in his room and built our own tree out of copies of Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants, Stink, Harry Potter and dozens of other books. The top book on the tree is The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

We took an old string of lights and wrapped them around the tree and a spare star tree topper that we had and lit the tree of books up. He was thrilled to have his own Christmas tree in his bedroom.

We didn’t worry about making the tree perfectly symmetrical (对称的), but with a little more time and patience we could have made a tree that was taller and a little neater. That wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun for us, though. I could see the tree through the crack in his door last night as he was sleeping, and it made me smile every time I walked past his bedroom.