For me, two of the loveliest words in English are “Life persists”.

I ________   them years ago as a college student, sitting in the library, ________, working on a paper. Out of nowhere, those words came ________ off the page in a quote, “In the midst of death life persists, in the midst of ________ truth persists, in the midst of darkness light persists.”

Suddenly I wasn’t unhappy and impatient any more. Then I ________ my granddad. I loved to talk with him. And I was ________ to hear what he’d think of it. He had poor hearing, so I had to ________ it a few times, but once he ________ it, he laughed. “All I can say to that is totally ________,”he said on the phone. I told him how glad I was, after a long winter, to finally see spring and ________ to find that quote. “Why is that?” he asked. “Well, spring is a sure _________ that life persists. And it just makes me________. ”

He laughed again, and then ______ his lovely voice, he recited for me his________“spring time” words, “The desert shall rejoice(高兴) and blossom(开花) like the rose … even with_________ and singing.”

Many years later, ________ my husband and I drove across a desert with many wildflowers and blooming cactuses (仙人掌), I could _________ hear my granddad laughing, “The desert shall rejoice.”

Life persists, and so do we, in the silence of _________ and the blooming of cactuses; and in the dead of   _________   and the green of spring. Spring _________   us that we’re alive forever.

Have you ever watched an artist paint a picture? He or she works close to the canvas (油画布) ______ small sections at a time in the process of completing the whole painting.

But every once in a while,   the ______ must step back from his/her work and look at the whole picture. Only by stepping away from what they’re working on can they ______ the proper perspective(视角). The proper point of view is ______ to the end result.

It’s no difference for any other creation.______ it’s a business,   a project or your life,   you need to step back ______ in order to get it right. From a ______，you can see things you can’t see when you’re close. The difference is in working on your project ______ working in it. It’s all too easy to focus on something but ______ the important parts needed to create a satisfying result.

Stephen Covey calls it “______ the saw(锯)”. It would be ______ to keep sawing without stopping from time to time to make your ______ sharper. But unfortunately,   that’s what too many of us ______.

Just like music,   we need spaces ______ the notes in order to create the lovely melody. A continuous collection of notes with no spaces is not good—it’s ______.

You may need to take a vacation to ______ work or study. At other times,   it's better to take a course or attend a meeting to ______ some new ideas. Sometimes,   it may be better to take a complete break,   to go away and just do something totally ______ —take on a volunteer project, build a house for Habitat for Humanity or some other worthy causes.

The important thing is to take the breaks. Without them,   we are not ______ and we don’t enjoy our work or our life as much. Our pressure ______ and both our work and our health suffer.

Two weeks of volunteer work lay ahead and my mood _________ . I realized that good _________ and a trip to Spain would not be enough to make the _________ that I had hoped for. My volunteer service was in a shelter in Peru. I was where I wanted to be, but, without the communication _________ I needed.

One morning the founder of the shelter, Miguel Rodriguez, _________ the story of how, after the death of his baby, he started feeding and taking in _________ children. He eventually _________ his family, wealth, and life to setting up what is now a shelter for over 1,300 children. As he finished, I asked: “I can _________ how the walls, the food, and the facility (设施) came to be, but, how did you _________ the atmosphere of love, respect, and care among these children?”

His response was simple: “Use the language of love.” He ____________, “The language of love is done with your eyes, your hands, and your smile.” “____________ are not only for work. They are for hugging, holding, and ____________.Do this, and they may well ____________ the example.”

This simple statement carried ____________. These children had communicated love, respect, and ____________ to me and each other without a word being ____________.These emotions, so ____________ to convey, did not need translation at all.

For the remainder of my service, I was determined to worry less about my ____________ of Spanish, and instead, focus on using the language of love. When I returned home, I ____________myself to use it more in my everyday life and to be mindful that being a(n) ____________ is sometimes all the power that is needed.