助人助已

Help Others， Help Yourself

Have you ever had a day when everything seemed to go wrong， and nothing seemed to go right? Not too long ago I was having one of those days. I was discouraged， weary， and plain sad. My focus was on me， me， me. After all， no one else was expe- riencing the same trials¹ as I was.

I expressed my downcaste² state to my mother hoping for some pity. Instead， she said， \"I heard Lily was having a difficult day too. Why don't you make her some cookies and we'll take them to her this afternoon?\"I didn't really want to， but decided that I didn't want to go back to my other problems just yet.I made the cookies and arranged them on little plate. Then I made a card with a sunflower on it and wrote a small note of empathy³.

That afternoon we dropped by my friends house. I went to the door and rang the bell. Soon， Lily came to the door and looked at me in surprise for the unexpected visit. Before she could say anything I rushed， \"I heard you were having a hard day and decided to bring you something. I hope your day goes better.\" The look that came over Lily's face was one that I could never put into words. It was as if a darkened sky was suddenly lit with the golden rays of the sun; it was as if in that small act， her day was brightened.

I got back into the car and for some amazing⁴ reason， I felt a lot better myself. That day I experienced the truth that James Barrie attempted⁵ to describe. \"Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others， cannot keep it from themselves.\"

1 trial n .考驗

2 downcast adj. 氣餒的，沮喪的

3 empathy n. 安慰（話語）

4 amazing adj. 令人驚異的

5 attempt vt. 嘗試，企圖

你有沒有過這樣的一天，事事都不如人意，沒有一件事讓你開心?不久前，我就有過這么一天。我氣餒、疲倦，悲傷揮之不去。我的注意力就是自己、自己、自己。畢竟，沒有任何人在經歷我所遭受的磨難。

我向母親說出了沮喪的心境，希望得到一點同情。而她開口說的是：“我聽說莉莉今天也不大開心。你為什么不做些曲奇餅，下午我們給她送去?”我并不想做曲奇餅，但決定還是暫時別回到自己的問題中去。于是，我做了曲奇餅，并把它們擺放到一個小盤子里。然后我還做了一張卡片，上面畫了一朵向日葵，還寫了幾句安慰的話語。

那天下午我們去了我朋友莉莉的家。我走到門前按響了門鈴。不一會，莉莉來開門，驚奇地看著我，沒料到我們會到訪。沒等她開口，我先急急地對她說：“我聽說你不開心，決定給你帶點東西來。希望你能開心起來。”莉莉臉上浮現的表情是我無法用語言描述的。好像原來烏云密布的天空頃刻間雨過天晴，金光四射；好像就因為這么一個小小的舉動，她的這一天就亮堂起來了。

我回到我們的車子里，也不知是什么奇妙的原因，我自己也感覺好多了。那天，我的經歷正如同詹姆斯·巴里曾試圖描述的：“給他人帶去陽光的人，自己也會沐浴在陽光之中。”