Today was a beautiful day. It was chilly but sunny. There was not any cloud in the sky. As usual, I went to work as a volunteer. Driving along the road, I noticed the colorful foliages. As far as I know, Traverse City was a very good spot to see the foliages. However, Traverse city was too far away from where I live. “OK, enjoying the leaves while I was driving was not a bad idea too.” I thought. “But why am I not as excited as before?”  I arrived in this country in July, 2002. My friend told me Fall is the most beautiful season in North America. He was right. When I first saw the colorful foliages in Swan Creek, I was thrilled. I shouted, laughed and took deep breath, which seemed that I tried to suck the Fall into my body. My friend took many pictures for me to record the beauty and the beautiful season (his words, I felt flattered). It was usually cloudy in that city. So the foliages brightened my days.

Looking at those multi-colored leaves today, I thought about career, marriage and friendship. When we first got a job, first got married, first knew a friend, we were usually very excited and passionate. We desired to explore more about the job, the marriage and the friend. We enjoyed the bright sides. Little by little, when we got used to all of these, we started to ignore the beauty in job, marriage and friendship. We took for granted that they were not as good as when we first found them. They had been went down. Actually, they might not change, but we changed and we demanded more. We lost our passion for them. We could only see their down sides. We were getting upset and started to complain. Passion was like a spark, which could not last long. However, trying to find the spark in life, like enjoying the cyclic colorful foliages every year, would be a wise choice. One of my friends once told me, one day, his wife called and complained to him how hard the life was. He replied to her: I had a good day because when I started to work, I saw a bird with red feathers. I never saw a bird like this before. There is a Chinese saying: 苦中作乐，其乐无穷。Most of people have good paid jobs, have their family with them day and night, have friends to visit them once a while. No reason to complain but enjoy and appreciate what they have. 

I was a little bit busy as a volunteer today. I went to deliver gifts for several times, wrapped gifts, arranged new items. The last delivery was for an ICU patient. I did realized patients in ICU should be very severe. However, when I first came in the ICU area, I was still shocked. There were 20 old patients in that area. Almost all of them had vital monitors and ventilation machines attached on their skinny bodies. Not mention those tubes. Few of them had clear consciousness. Only two family members were there to accompany their beloved. The whole area was terrible which was hanging over by death atmosphere. I put the patient’s greeting card on the small table beside him and left hurriedly.

Life and death are always with us. My grandpa passed away last month. My brother-in-law was dead by accident last year, left my feeble sister and their two-year-old daughter. I could not stop thinking what if the one who was lying on bed was my parents. Life is short and weak. Three words popped up into my mind: live, love and laugh. Living earnestly, like one is dying tomorrow. Love one’s family members and friends, showing them concern and care, giving them hugs as many as possible. Sometimes body touching is more effective than many words. Laugh as much as one can, even facing difficulties.  Those are simple principles. Everybody knows it but often ignores it. Life is a process of learning. Never late to learn and never late to love.