大俠行天下日記我見我聞我思 10/04

我見我思我聞

小城故事

今晨我們前往距休斯敦百英里外的德州小鎮-安德森，探望多年好友艾勒並祝賀他多年親手建造之木屋喬遷之喜。

從州際二四九公路北上，經九十号是片湾曲翠綠和秋葉相間的幽靜鄉鎮小道，起伏的山丘和散佈在其中的農莊園，寬大的白色圍欄之內有小鹿或骏馬在地上啃草，許多莊園還留下当年總統選舉的舊標語，這個个小鎮人口未過一千人，他們代表了美國鄕村之樸實和平和氣围。

艾勒在他佔地三畝多的新屋中歡迎我們的到來，這可是一個自已親手DIY 建造的大木屋，從原始大樹锯成木材，設计下水道，安裝空調廚房全由自己包辦，由於自己已經在建筑房屋公司工作多年，這是他的專業和興趣，在他堅持數年之不斷努力，今天終於入住。

艾勒是德國後裔，娶了華裔老婆，曾經在中國大地包括海南島騎着大型機車玩遍各地名勝古蹟。

我們座在富有德州風格的大沙發上，他指着電視抱怨說，我最近根本不看電視了，因為政客們把我們的生活步調搞亂了，物價飛漲，地稅增加，老百姓們不再信賴他們的謊言。

艾勒正在手扶自己親手設計的傢具，並微笑地告訴我們，角落邊為太太設計的中式炉頭，我們見到的一切都留下了他的痕跡和心血，這何嘗不是艾勒人生中的一件成就呢。

回家的路上我一直在想，美國社會真是兩個世界，艾勒可以不問时事在他所建的木屋後院，觀看夕陽日落，真是人生幸福的寫照了。

We All Need To Live In Hope

We often call Autumn the season of the year between summer and winter when the temperature gradually decreases, the leaves fall from the trees and the temperature transitions between summer heat and winter cold.

I was walking through my backyard where many trees are changing their colors to red or brown and suddenly I felt a deep sadness as many tragedies passed through my mind.

In the last twenty months the world has really turned upside down because of the Covid-19. We lost many of our dear friends, brothers and sisters. They lost the battle with the coronavirus and many families lost their loved ones or their businesses which they had built up over their lifetime.

Dear brothers and sisters, we still need to live in hope. Hope can erode when we perceive a threat to our way of life and these days all of us face plenty of uncertainty out there.

All of us need to have hope even when there is no hope. People can’t picture a desired end to their struggles and they lose their motivation to endure.

According to research at Harvard, they found that those with more hope throughout their lives had better physical health, better health behaviors, better social support and longer lives.

Today we live in a very chaotic world. Many things are uncertain.

We need to make our minds stronger every day and always look for more hope to help each other fight for a better future.