“Serena, don’t forget your promise to me that you will mow (割) Mrs. Martin’s yard this weekend,” said Dad. “Don’t let me down.”

Serens was the oldest child in the family, and one of her chores was to mow their yard. Mrs. Martin, their elderly neighbor, was unable to take care of her yard, so Serena’s Dad had volunteered Serena for this job. Since Mrs. Martin’s yard was not very big, Serena knew the job would go quickly. However, she still resented her dad’s promise.

“Why didn’t you ask me first?” Serena had complained.

“Did you ask me first when you volunteered me to be in the school festival last fall?” asked Serena’s father.

“Well, no, I didn’t ask you first, but you would have done those things anyway. You’re always willing to help.”

“I try when I can,” Dad answered. “Serena, we have known Mrs. Martin for a very long time. She has often helped our family. Now we can do something for her. Besides, the feeling you get from helping someone makes you wonder who is really helping whom.”

“I don’t know, Dad,” said Serena. “The only feeling I get from mowing our yard is tired.”

“Just you wait and see,” said Dad.

After breakfast, Serena made her way to Mrs. Martin’s yard. She was good at her job and soon had Mrs. Martin’s yard looking tidy. Mrs. Martin came outside with a big glass of orange juice and offered it to her. Serena stopped her work and gratefully enjoyed the drink, while Mrs. Martin talked to her about all of the flowers in her yard. Seeing the joy in Mrs. Martin’s eyes, Serena began to understand how much the yard meant to Mrs. Martin.

After finishing her drink, Serena returned to work with a new attitude. A warm feeling began to spread (蔓延) through her body. Her dad was right. It was hard to tell who was helping who!

When my oldest son was in high school, he planned to attend a pop concert with the youth group. To my amazement, Aaron invited me to go along. He knew I enjoyed the music of one of the performers. I readily accepted. However, as it was drawing near, my youngest son was ill. My husband encouraged me to go, assuring me he could take care of our youngest, but I hesitated.

Finally, it hit me. Aaron was 16. How many opportunities would I have to do something fun with him before he went away to college? The decision was made. I would not miss this opportunity.

At the concert, I sat with Aaron and his friends, stuffing cotton in my ears to block out the loud, ear-splitting music of the first performer. I stood when the kids stood, clapped when they clapped, and never let anyone know how nervous I was. Aaron and his friends were amused at my enthusiasm. By the time we left the concert, I was certain my hearing was damaged forever. My ears were ringing and sounds seemed unclear, but it quickly passed. So did my son’s teenage years. In no time was he in college and away from home. I missed him more than I could say.

Aaron now has his own family, engaged in many routines. Some days he calls just to chat and tell me about his day. I drop everything and enjoy the moment, knowing these times too shall pass.

We sometimes recall that concert of years ago that Aaron and I would memorize all our life. Aaron always laughs about the fact that his mom was the “only” person in the whole youth group to get a signature from the performer.

The painter Georgia O’Keeffe was born in Wisconsin in 1887 and grew up on her family’s farm. At seventeen she decided to be an artist and left the farm for schools in Chicago and New York, but she never lost her contact with the land. Like most painters,O’Keeffe painted the things that were most important to her, and nearly all her works are simplified portrayals (描绘) of nature.

O’Keeffe became famous when her paintings were discovered and exhibited in New York by the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, whom she married in 1924. During a visit to New Mexico in 1929, O’Keeffe was so moved by the bleak (荒凉的) landscape and broad skies of the western desert that she began to paint its images. Cows’ skulls and other bleached bones found in the desert figured prominently in her paintings. When her husband died in 1946, she moved to New Mexico permanently and used the horizon lines of the desert, colourful flowers, rocks, barren hills, and the sky as subjects for her paintings. Although O’Keeffe painted her best-known works in the 1920s,1930s and 1940s, she continued to produce tributes to the western desert until her death in 1986.

O’Keeffe is widely considered to have been a pioneering American modernist painter. While most early modern American artists were strongly influenced by European art, O’Keeffe’s position was more independent. She created her own vision and preferred to view her painting as a private effort. Almost from the beginning, her work was more identifiably (可识别地) American than other painters in its special treatment of colour,light,space and natural forms.