A Book of Thanks

◎Richard Edwards

在这纷繁复杂的生活中，我们可能会碰上各种烦心事，但别忘了，有时候正是在这些微妙的瞬间里蕴藏着无尽的感激之情。或许，我们可以像文中的小马克一样，拥有一本属于自己的感恩记录。一起踏上感恩之旅吧，用心感知那些被时间淡忘的温暖，享受生命的美好，发现感恩的力量。

“I feel so1)vexed and out of temper with Ben for breaking my cart, that I really must—” Mark said angrily.

“Do something in2)revenge?” inquired his cousin Julia.

“No, cousin; but I must look over my Book of Thanks.”

“Your Book of Thanks! What is that?” inquired Julia, as Mark turned over the3)leaves of a little book which was nearly full of writing.

“O, here it is!” and he read aloud, “March 8.Ben lent me his new knife.March 10.Ben showed me his new book.”

“And here, again, only the other day: June 19.Ben gave me a new string for my kite.”

“I think I will turn down a leaf there.Ben is a pretty good boy,after all.Don’t you think so, cousin?”

“What do you write down in that book?” said Julia, who had been watching Mark with much curiosity.

“Our teacher told us, last winter, that everybody has some good about him, and that if we would look for it we should find more of it than we expected, and that this would make us happier than to be looking for the bad.

“She also told us that, if we would mark the different acts of kindness shown to us, we should very soon be surprised at the number of them.

“I write them down in this book so as not to forget them.

“When I am cross, or out of temper with any one, I look over this book and it nearly always makes me feel good-natured and on pretty good terms with him again.”

“I wonder what sort of things you put down.Will you please let me look at your book?” said Julia.

Mark handed it to her; and as Julia looked it over she read—

“February 4.Mrs.Wade asked me to spend the day at her house, and she made it very pleasant for me.

“February 9.I broke my sled while sliding down hill.John Jones came along and said he was sorry: he would stop and help me fix it,but was going on an4)errand, and could not.

“March 1.I have been sick two weeks.Mrs.Page came several times to see me.”

“Why do you put father and mother at the head of every page?”

“O, they show me so much kindness that I can not write it down,and so I just write their names.”

“And what is this at the beginning of the book? ‘Every good gift is from above.’”

“That I put there as a sort of title-page.”

My reader, if you, like Mark, should keep a Book of Thanks, don’t you think it would make you more cheerful, contented, and happy?

1) vexedadj.生气的；烦恼的

2) revengen.报复

3) leafn.纸页；书页

4) errandn.差事

“本弄坏了我的车，我很生气，非常生气，我想我必须……”马克气愤地说道。

“进行报复？”表姐茱莉亚问道。

“不，表姐，我是要好好翻翻我的感恩记录看一看。”

“你的感恩记录？那是什么东西？”这时马克开始翻看一个上面密密麻麻写满了东西的小本子，茱莉亚好奇地问。

“哦，有了！”马克大声读了起来，“三月八日，本把他新买的小刀借给我用。三月十日，本给我看了他的新书。”

“这里还有，是另外一天：六月十九日，本给了我一股新的风筝线。”

“我想这一页可以翻过去了。不管怎么说，本是个好人，我说得对吗，表姐？”

一直都在观察他的表姐好奇地问道：“你在这个本子上到底都记了些什么？”

“去年冬天，老师对我们说，每个人都有他的优点，如果我们想发现，我们就会发现他的优点总比我们预料的要多，而且这样做比我们总去看他的缺点要让我们自己更加快乐。

“她还告诉我们，如果我们记录下来每个人对我们的好，很快我们就会惊奇于他们善待我们的次数竟然那么多。

“因此，我把他们所有人对我的好都记录了下来，以防忘记。

“每次我生别人气或发怒的时候，我就会翻翻这本记录本，它几乎总会让我平静下来，再次体会到那个人对我的好。”

“我很想知道你都记录了一些什么，让我看看好吗？”茱莉亚问。

马克把记录本递给了她，她认真地翻看着，还读出声来：

“二月四日，韦德夫人让我在她家玩了一天，我非常高兴。

“二月九号，我从山上往下滑雪时，弄坏了雪橇。约翰·琼斯滑了过来，他对我说看到我的雪橇坏了他感到很遗憾，他希望能帮我修好，但是由于有事他不能这样做。

“三月一日，我病了两个星期，佩琪夫人来看过我两次。”

“为什么在每页的开头你都写着爸爸妈妈？”

“哦，他们对我的好真是太多了，根本写不完，所以我只在每页写上他们的名字。”

“这本记录本最开始是什么？‘一切美好的礼物从下面开始。’”

“我把这句话写在这里作为这本记录本的扉页。”

读者们，如果你们也像马克一样做一个感恩记录，难道你不认为这会让你更快乐、更满足、更幸福吗？