Be grateful in our life
Once President Roosevelt’s house was broken into and lots of things were stolen. Hearing this, one of Roosevelt’s friends wrote to him and advised him not to take it to his heart so much. President Roosevelt wrote back immediately, saying,” Dear friend, thank you for your letter to comfort me. I’m all right now. I think I should thank God. This is because of the following three reasons: firstly, the thief only stole things from me but did not hurt me at all; secondly, the thief has stolen some of my things instead of all my things; thirdly, most luckily for me, it was the man rather than me who became a thief…”
It was quite unlucky for anyone to be stolen from. However, President Roosevelt had such three reasons to be so grateful. This story tells us how we can learn to be grateful in our life.
Being grateful is an important philosophy of life and a great wisdom. It is impossible for anyone to be lucky and successful all the time so long as he lives in the world. We should learn how to face failure or misfortune bravely and generously and to try to deal with it. If so, should we complain about our life and become frustrated and disappointed ever since then or should we be grateful for our life, rise again by ourselves after a fall? William Thackeray, a famous British writer, said, “Life is a mirror. When you smile in front of it, it will also smile and so will it when you cry to it.” If you are grateful to life, it will bring you shining sunlight. If you always complain about everything, you may own nothing in the end. When we are successful, we can surely have many reasons for being grateful, but we have only one excuse to show ungratefulness if we fail.
I think we should even be grateful to life whenever we are unsuccessful or unlucky. Only by doing this can we find our weakness and shortcomings when we fail. We can also get relief and warmth when we are unlucky. This can help us find our courage to overcome the difficulties we may face, and receive great impetus to move on. We should treat our frustration and misfortune in our life in the other way just as President Roosevelt did. We should be grateful all the time and keep having a healthy attitude to our life forever, keep having perfect characters and enterprising spirit. Being grateful is not only a kind of comfort, not an escape from life and nor thinking of winning in spirit like Ah Q. Being grateful is a way to sing for our life which comes just from our love and hope.
When we put a small piece of alum into muddy water, we can see the alum can soon make the water clear. If each of us has an attitude of being grateful, we’ll be able to get rid of impulse, upset, dissatisfaction and misfortune. Being grateful can bring us a better and more beautiful life.
【助讀詞彙】
◇philosophy n. 哲學
◇impetus n. 推動力，促進
◇frustration n. 挫折，失望，失意
◇alum n. 明礬
◇impulse n. 衝動，刺激
【參考譯文】
感恩生活
美國總統羅斯福的家曾經被人闖入並且被偷走了許多東西。一個朋友聞此訊息，就寫信來安慰他，勸他不必把這件事放在心上。羅斯福總統很快回信說：“親愛的朋友，謝謝你來信安慰我，我一切都很好。我想我應該感謝上帝，因為以下的三條理由：第一，小偷只偷了我的.錢，並沒有傷害到我;第二，小偷只偷了我的部分財物，而非所有財產;第三，最幸運的是，做小偷的是那個人不是我……”
對任何人來說，家中失竊絕非幸事。但是，羅斯福總統卻能找到三個感恩的理由。這個故事告訴我們，生活中，我們應該學會感恩。
感恩是一門重要的處世哲學和大智慧。人生在世，不可能事事都幸運和成功。我們應該學習豁達大度、勇敢地面對失敗和不幸，並想辦法解決。面對困難，我們是抱怨生活，沮喪氣餒，悲觀失望，還是對生活滿懷感恩之心，跌倒之後再爬起來呢?英國著名作家威廉·薩克雷說過，“生活是一面鏡子，你對它笑，它也會對你笑;你對他哭，它也會對你哭。”如果對生活感恩，它將帶給你燦爛的陽光;如果對什麼事情都是抱怨，終將一無所獲。當我們成功時，我們當然有許我理由感恩生活，但是失敗時，只要一個藉口就會表現出忘恩負義。
我想，不論什麼時候遭遇失敗或不幸，我們都應該感謝生活。只有這樣，當失敗時，我們才能發現自己的缺點和不足，不幸時，我們還能感受到安慰和溫暖。這些就能幫我們找回勇氣，戰勝困難，並獲取前進的強大推動力。我們應像羅斯福總統那樣，換一個角度去看待生活中的失敗和挫折。我們應該時刻保持一顆感恩的心，堅持用健康的態度對待生活，保持完美的品質和不斷進取的精神。感恩不僅僅是一種精神慰藉，也不是對現實的規避，更不是阿Q的精神勝利法。感恩源於我們對生活的熱愛和希望，它是我們歌頌生活的一種方式。
把一小塊明礬放入混沌的水中，我們發現，明礬會讓水很快就澄清了。如果人人都有感恩的態度，就能沉澱許多的浮躁和不安，消融許多的不滿和不幸。感恩能讓我們的生活變得更加美好。
【人生啟迪】
生活中總是充滿著酸甜苦辣，遇到挫折時，大多數的人都是在抱怨生活的不公，卻很少有人依然能夠懷著感恩的心對待生活。其實生活對待每個人都是公平的，我們沒辦法改變生活，我們所能改變的只是自己的態度，懷著感恩的心去對待生活，你會發現，其實生活從未如此美好。
