Five frogs (青蛙) were sitting on a stone. Four of the frogs decided to jump off. How many frogs were ____ on the stone? The answer was ____. The four decided to jump off. That did not mean they ___ did it.

This is a typical _____ we have heard before. It is also true for ___. Have you ever made a _____ like the jumping off? I have done that many times. It might be when I was lying in bed. I decided to get up, ____ 30 minutes later, I was still lying there. It might also be when I decided to lose weight. In my mind, I was already ___ less. However, my actions ____ reflected that decision. I still ate lots of snacks.       

Giving ourselves time to ___ can prevent us from taking action. So don’t think too much. We should count down for five seconds and take action right away.

Aria was feeling bad. She didn’t want to play at all during the morning break.

“What’s wrong, Aria? ” asked Zara, her best friend.

“This was the _______ week ever! Everything was terrible!”

“What was the matter? ” Zara said.

Aria started to tell, “On Monday I broke my new laces. On Tuesday I _______ my bike. On Wednesday I made my favourite shirt _______. On Thursday I brought my new race car to school, but Max had the same car and he showed everyone before I got to.”

Zara looked surprised. “You broke your laces on Monday, but you got new shoes. You fell off your bike on Tuesday because you tried to ride with no hands. And you did it! You dropped ice cream on your shirt on Wednesday, but you could _______ it. On Thursday you and Max were playing _______ with your cars all the break. Even the big kids watched.”

That night, Aria asked her mom, “Mom, I think there’s something wrong with me. I only _______ the bad things that happen.”

Mom gave her a hug. “I _______ feel that way too. Almost everyone feels like that some of the time, ” her mom explained. “A long, long time ago, people needed to watch out for scary (恐怖的) things. If they didn’t notice a tiger, they could be in _______. But if they missed the good things, like a beautiful sunset, they would still be okay. So our brains learned to focus on the bad things to help us keep _______. But if we feel sad and get stuck, we can change our ________ to let go of the bad and see more of the good. The more we practice, the stronger our brains will be.”

A few years ago, my husband and I were on island for a long weekend with our 3- and 4-year-old daughters. As we went back and thought about _______ to do next, our girls jumped in and told us their ideas. Ariela and Eliana said that they wanted to go to the _________ museum.

When we walked _______ the main area of the museum, we saw thousands of beautiful butterflies. They all flapped (拍动) their colourful _______. My girls were jumping up and down ___________. I knew we had made the right _______ to come to the museum. They were having so much fun. I turned to our museum tour guide _______ I was curious and asked, “How long do butterflies _______?” She said, “About ten days.” “What can butterflies do in ten days?” I asked. The guide stopped, looked at me, and said, “They make the world a more _______ place.”

“Wow,” I said, “I ________ thought about butterflies like that. Thank you!” After we said goodbye, I couldn’t ________ thinking about what the guide had said. She was right. We all have something to ________ the world with the time we have. When we focus our gifts on taking care of each other every day, we can make a ________.

There is no ________ that butterflies make the world a more beautiful place. You can also ________ your life like a butterfly and appreciate the effect you can have on your family, friends, co-workers and neighbours.

Like a butterfly, we have our own way of making the world a little better for everyone.