All I knew was that, when I heard a young girl’s voice in distress, I had to do something. It was on a flight to Iceland with a dear friend with cancer. He asked me to accompany him as he traveled to get some medical scans in Europe. We were all settled in for a long flight, off on an adventure to a hospital in Holland where I would support him.

It wasn’t long before I heard a man belittling (贬低) a sobbing girl directly behind me. I couldn’t ignore what was happening. This was obviously a girl in a very dangerous situation. My friend didn’t hear any of it, so he had no idea what I was thinking. I was witnessing, with my ears only, a guy verbally abusing a girl who was crying uncontrollably: “… fat… retarded(迟钝的) . What did I see in you?” Her boyfriend continued to upset her with no regard for her tears. He didn’t care. He was controlling her, and this was his intention.

I noticed the napkin used for my water cup and recognized it was something I could write on. If I could get a note to her without him seeing, maybe this would help her understand she needed to run away from him FAST.

This was happening behind me, so I thought, I could wait until he went to the bathroom and passed her the note. I glanced behind me periodically, and he finally left. I didn’t know what she looked like. I didn’t know if our eyes ever met. All I knew then was she now had a note from someone who cared, with my e-mail address, asking if she wanted to contact a total stranger who had observed her desperate situation. It was so dangerous that I couldn’t even risk sharing my phone number and taking a chance that it would land in her boyfriend’s hands.

Sometimes, there are situations we cannot ignore. My dad taught me to never leave a place wishing I had done or said something. That was going through my mind. I actually did something and I wished it could make a difference.

I did get a response from this young girl, revealing there was not only verbal abuse but physical abuse as well.

It turned out that my note had started getting the girl on the path to saving herself.

Mama and Papa were like most parents. They wanted the best for their kids. Jeff and Jenna were like most kids. They wanted the best for themselves－the best place in front of the TV, the biggest piece of cake and the most candies.

One night, when the noisy kids were sound asleep, Mama lay awake worrying. She sighed a big sigh, thinking how to teach Jeff and Jenna to mend their selfish ways. Lecturing didn’t work.

As Mama lay there, she thought about how kids learn. Kids learn by doing. They learn to walk by walking. That’s the answer, thought Mama. The kids will learn to help others by helping others. But questions of who, when, and where went unanswered as she drifted off to sleep.

To her pleasure, those questions were soon answered. The next day, they happened to meet Mrs. Marie, the elderly widow who lived just down the road, at the checkout line at the supermarket.

Mama asked the kids to say hello to Mrs. Marie, about whom the kids were a little nervous. She was really old and kind of bent over. And there was that crooked cane she used when she walked. But the real reason they were nervous about her was that two days ago their ball had gone into her yard and knocked over some flowers in the garden and broke the glasses of the attic. They had never apologized.

When Mama and the kids were loading their groceries into the car, Mrs. Marie came out of the supermarket pushing her little collapsible shopping cart.

“Where are you going?” called Mama.

“To the bus stop,” she said, “The bus goes right by my house.” “So does our car,” said Mama.

Mama asked the kids to help Mrs. Marie into the car and put her things in the trunk(后备箱).

As the car was approaching Mrs. Marie`s house, Mama made a decision.

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 streams were long gone back into the earth. If we didn’t see some rain soon, we would lose everything.

I was in the kitchen making lunch for the family when I saw my six-year-old son, Billy, walking toward the woods. I could only see his back. He wasn’t walking in his usual way. 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.

Moments later, however, he was once again walking in that slow and purposeful step toward the woods. This activity went on for over an hour walking cautiously to the woods, then running back to the house. 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, being very careful not to spill the water he carried. Branches and thorns slapped his little face but he did not try to avoid them. He had a much greater purpose. As I leaned against a tree to spy on him, I saw the most amazing site.

Several large deer appeared threatening in front of him. But Billy walked right up to them. I almost screamed for him to get away. And I saw a baby deer lying on the ground, obviously suffering from heavy loss of water and heat exhaustion, lift its head with great effort to lap up the water in my boy’s hand.

After delivering the water to the dehydrated (脱水的) animals, Billy carefully jumped up to run back.

Later that day, I learned what had been happening.