馮萍

When I was growing up， I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didnt look like any doctor Id ever known. He never invited us to play in his yard， but he was a kind person.

在我成長的過程中，我有一位老鄰居，他叫吉布斯醫(yī)生。他和我認識的其他醫(yī)生不一樣。他從來沒有邀請我們?nèi)ニ耐ピ豪锿嫠?，但他是一個善良的人。

When Dr. Gibbs wasnt not saving people， he was planting trees. He had a large field and wanted to make it a forest.

吉布斯醫(yī)生不是在治病救人，就是在種樹。他有一塊很大的地，他想把這塊地變成一片森林。

The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled1 them， and that if you watered them， each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker， so you had to make things difficult for them and picked out the weaker trees early on.

這位好醫(yī)生對種樹方面有一些有意思的想法。他從來不給樹澆水。有一次我問他為什么，他說給新種的樹澆水是溺愛它們。如果你給它們澆水，每棵小樹苗就會越長越弱，所以你必須讓它們在逆境中生長，盡早挑出病秧子。

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots， and how trees that werent watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. Deep roots were very important.

他接著談到：給樹澆水，樹根就淺;不澆水，它們就只能自己在地底深深扎根，根扎得深很重要。

So he never watered his trees. Hed planted an oak2 tree and， instead of watering it every morning， hed beat it with a rolled-up3 newspaper. I asked him why he did that， and he said it was to get the trees attention.

所以他從來不給他的樹澆水。他種了一棵橡樹，不過每天早上都不給它澆水，相反，他用卷起來的報紙敲打這棵橡樹。我問他為什么這樣做，他說這樣是為了引起橡樹的注意。

Dr. Gibbs died several years after I left home. Every now and then， I walked by his house and looked at the trees that he planted twenty-five years ago. Theyre big and strong now. I planted some trees a few years ago and carried water to them for a whole summer. After two years of caring too much， whenever a cold wind blows in， they shake a lot.

我離開家?guī)啄旰?，吉布斯醫(yī)生去世了。我時常從他的房子前面走過，看看他25年前種的那些樹，它們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)長得又大又壯。幾年前，我也種了幾棵樹。整個夏天，我都抬水過去澆灌它們。經(jīng)過兩年的精心照料，可每次冷風呼嘯時，它們還是搖晃得很厲害。

Every night before I go to bed， I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately Ive been thinking that its time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to face difficulties. Theres always a cold wind blowing somewhere in life， so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart， so when the rains fall and the winds blow， they could face it bravely and wont be beaten down.

每天晚上睡覺前，我都會去看一下我的兩個兒子。我總是祈禱他們的生活會一帆風順。但是后來我想，是時候該改變我的祈禱了。我知道我的孩子將來會面臨困難。人生路上總會有冷風呼嘯，所以我們要祈禱的是，勇敢之心在他們心里深深扎根，這樣，當狂風暴雨來臨時，他們都能勇敢面對，不被打倒的。endprint