Have you ever asked yourself why children go to school? You will probably1._______ they go to learn languages, geography, history, science and all the other subjects. That is quite true, but why do they learn these things?

We send our children to school to prepare (做准备) them for their future work and life. Nearly everything they study at school is useful in their life, but is that the only reason they go to school?

People need to learn all kinds of skills, for the purpose of knowing the world and get used to the environment (环境). We go to school above all to learn how to learn so that when we leave school we can go on learning. If a man really knows 2._______ to learn, he will always be successful, because whenever he has to do something new, he will quickly teach himself how to do it in the best way. On the other hand, the uneducated (未受教育的) person can not do it, or does it badly, so the purpose of school is not just to teach languages, geography, science, etc, but to teach pupils the way to learn.

A young man went to visit a wise man who lived deep in the mountain. He wanted to ask for wisdom (智慧) of life.

“Excuse me! Could you tell me what is the most important day in our lives? Is it the day we were born or the day we die? Is it the day we fall in love or the day we are successful?” the young man asked.

“None. The most important day in our lives is today,” the wise man replied calmly.

“Why?” the young man was very surprised. “Is it because something unusual happened today”

“No. Nothing has happened today.”

“So is it because of my visit?”

“Even if (即使) nobody visited me today, today is still very important, because today is the only wealth (财富) we have. No matter (无论) how important yesterday is, it has gone by; no matter how wonderful tomorrow may be, it hasn’t come; no matter how ordinary (普通) and boring today is, it is in our hands.”

The young man still wanted to ask something, but the wise man stopped him and said, “When we are talking about the importance of today, we have wasted a lot of it. That is to say, part of ‘today’ has passed.”

Having understood this, the young man nodded and then went down the mountain. In fact, today is the only wealth and chance we have. Therefore, what we should do now is to forget yesterday and tomorrow and catch hold of today!

I find it humorous sometimes that even the most common things can have a deep influence on our mind.

My wife, daughter, and I moved into our home nine years ago and we spent a lot of time and energy in the yard to make what it looks like today. We live on a corner, higher than street level, and the whole side of the yard is surrounded by a professionally built rock wall. The front of the house though is another story. Because the rocks there appear to be just thrown up onto the earth, as if someone was in a hurry to finish.

We did the best we could to work with what we had, and called this area our ‘rock garden’. Whenever we had other flowers or plants, Denise or I would place them on the front, just to bring some colors to that area.

Last summer, I cleared the weeds in the yard. When I had reached the end of the rock garden, I found a tiny little plant that I could not immediately identify. I knew I didn’t plant it and Denise claimed that she didn’t either. We decided to let it continue growing till we could figure out what it was.

Weeks passed and as I made my way back to the special plant, it appeared to be a Sunflower. It has a tall skinny stalk and only one head on it. I decided to clear the weeds around it. As I pulled rocks from the area to get to the weeds, I noticed something unusual. The Sunflower had not started where I saw the plant begin. It actually had begun under a big rock and grown under and around it to reach the sun.

That’s when I realized that if a tiny little Sunflower didn’t let a big rock stand in its way of developing, we too have the ability of doing the same thing. Once our environment begins to see that we believe in ourselves like that little Sunflower, we can get the same nourishment and growing as well.

We need to believe in ourselves knowing we have the abilities in achieving our desires. Like the Sunflower, it knew it had the ability to overcome its obstacle because it trusted in the Universal Truth and had faith it would succeed.

Stand tall like the Sunflower and be proud of who and what you are and the environment will begin to support you. You will find a way to go under or around your big obstacle in order to reach your desires.