I wanted to have tea with Nirad in a tea break during a retreat (静养). I was holding the cup so he could sip (小口喝) tea. I was being careful and poured a small quantity in his mouth. I enjoyed concentrating on each moment and listening deeply to do a good job with serving tea.

We were immediately connected and befriended each other during this time. Two other retreat participants joined and then there were four people talking about varieties of topics which ranged from how Nirad progressed in his education to cool ones like how he maintains his weight, etc. These conversations brought smiles and it seemed that we all knew each other from long time ago. In subtle (巧妙的) ways, we quietly felt the connection.

When we finished tea, I felt like tying a wristband for Nirad. The wristband had the letters that read “WE” on one side and “ME” on the other if read upside down. This beautiful gift was received from the Moved By Love team (a non-profit volunteer organization in India). I told Nirad that my youngest brother is about his age, and he gave me a sweet, calm smile.

I felt deep content during this teatime. I had actually lived those moments, being sympathetic and friendly. It was an experience of joy. Later, during the retreat, each time myself and Nirad happened to greet or talk, we smiled naturally and felt connected.

It's sad that we don't connect deeply, even with our family or friends. We are just too busy running after things, going nowhere. We don't seem to concentrate or care enough for people during our conversations. I had these valuable realizations later.

On the last day of the retreat, I told Nirad, “This was the best teatime I ever had in my life.” He gave me a warm, unforgettable smile.

   I think it was October, 1982. A friend had business dealings in the city of Reno, Nevada, and I was asked to accompany her on an overnight trip. While she conducted her business, I was aimlessly wandering down Virginia Street, heading into a most gloriously beautiful sunset. I had an urge to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but I couldn't make eye contact with anyone. Quickly I ducked into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as though I were from some other planet and said, "Well..." Surprisingly, she followed me out.

   When she got outside I said to her, "Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone."

   For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world." I thanked her for coming out to see it and sharing the beauty.

   Four years later my situation had changed considerably. I had come to the end of a twenty-year marriage, I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life. One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up a Unity Magazine and read an article about a woman who had been in similar circumstances. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: cosmetic sales in a department store. We had a lot in common.

   Then something happened to her that changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, "God's in his heaven and all's right with the world.", and she had realized the truth in that statement and that she simply had not been seeing it. From that moment on, she turned her life around.

Reading is thought to be a kind of conservation between the reader and the text. The reader puts questions, as it were, to the text and gets answers. In the light of these he puts further questions, and so on.

       For most of the time this “conservation” goes on below the level of consciousness. At times, however, we become aware of it. This is usually when we are running into difficulties, when mismatching is occurring between expectation and meaning. When successful matching is being experienced , our questioning of the text continues at the unconscious level.

Different people converse with the text differently. Some stay very close to the words on the page; others take off imaginatively from the words, interpreting, criticizing, analyzing and examining. The former represents a kind of comprehension which is written in the text. The latter represents higher levels of comprehension. The balance between these is important, especially for advanced readers. There is another conservation which from our point of view is equally important, and that is not to do with what is read but how it is read. We call this a “process” conservation as opposed to a “content” conservation. It is concerned not with meaning but with the strategies we employ in reading. If we are an advanced reader, our ability to hold a content conservation with a text is usually pretty well developed. Not so our ability to hold a process conservation. It is precisely this kind of conservation that is of importance when we are seeking to develop our reading to meet the new demands being placed upon us by studying at a higher level.

Given the tradition of students bringing apples to their teachers, it somehow seems fitting that an old apple barn(谷仓) will find a new life as a one-room schoolhouse.And it is just as fitting that a retired schoolteacher will become the caretaker of that historic treasure.

My friend Velma, a teacher for more than 30 years, has been retired for some time now, but that doesn't stop her giving history lessons at the old Englewood School, located on her family's California farm.The lovingly restored building was constructed around 1850 as a home for a woodsman and later was used as an apple barn.Then, in 1870 it began a new life as a schoolhouse.

Originally located in the nearby Englewood meadow, it was now moved to its current site in 1978 by Velma's late husband and his brother, Robert and Richard, who thought it would help keep Velma busy in retirement.No nails had been used in the original construction, so each piece of wood had to be carefully marked and the building was reassembled(重装) on its new site.The brothers worked with much care and hard work to ensure a perfect fit of mitred(斜接的) corners.After the relocation, Velma and her family furnished the school with some of its original desks.They also added a collection of schoolbooks, the oldest dating back to 1845.

Nowadays Velma gives tours to local schoolchildren and other groups, who learn what it was like to attend school back in the good old days.She has kids ring the school bell, recite the Pledge of Allegiance and sing Good Morning to You as they might have done in days gone by.Then, with twinkling eyes and much enthusiasm, she tells the history of the school, and gives a short sample lesson.