幸福是一种态度 （22）所有的花儿都美丽(下)
After the play, I took home the flower I had stuffed in the apron of my costume. My mother pressed it between two sheets of paper toweling in a dictionary, laughing as she did it that we were perhaps the only people who would press such a sorry-looking weed.
演出结束后，我把那朵蒲公英塞进了我演出服的口袋里带回了家。妈妈把它压在两张纸巾之间再夹进字典里，笑着说，这世上也许只有我们两人愿意把这么一株不起眼的野草小心翼翼地夹起来。
I often look back on our lunchtimes together, bathed in the soft midday light. They were the commas in my childhood, the pauses that told me life is not savored in pre-measured increments , but in the sum of daily rituals and small pleasures we casually share with loved ones. Over peanut-butter sandwiches and chocolate-chip cookies, I learned that love, first and foremost, means being there for the little things.
如今，沐浴在正午和煦的阳光里，我常回忆起我们一起度过的那些午餐时间。它们就像是我童年岁月里的小逗点儿。这些停顿告诉我，生命不是在预先量好的增额中来体味的，而是要在每天的生活琐事以及不经意中和所爱的人共享的许多小乐趣中去细细体味的。吃着花生酱三明治和巧克力曲奇条，我认识到：爱，首先并且最重要地，意味着关注那些微不足道的小事。
A few months ago, my mother came to visit. I took off a day from work and treated her to lunch. The restaurant bustled with noontime activity as businesspeople made deals and glanced at their watches. In the middle of all this sat my mother, now retired, and I. From her face I could see that she relished the pace of the work world.
几个月前，妈妈来看我。我请了一天假陪她吃午饭。午时的餐馆熙熙攘攘，一些商人在吃饭，时不时地瞟一眼腕上的手表。在这些忙碌的人群中，我和现已退休的妈妈坐在那里。从她脸上，我看得出她非常羡慕上班族的工作节奏。
Mom, you must have been terribly bored staying at home when I was a child, I said.
“妈妈，我小时候您呆在家里照顾我时，一定感到非常厌烦吧？”我问道。
Bored? Housework is boring. But you were never boring.
“厌烦？家务活确实让人感到厌烦，但你永远也不会让我感到厌烦。”
I didn’t believe her so I pressed. Surely children are not as stimulating as a career.
我有些不相信，于是又说：“照顾孩子肯定不像工作那么具有挑战性。”
A career is stimulating, she said. I’m glad I had one. But a career is like an open balloon. It remains inflated only as long as you keep pumping. A child is a seed. You water it. You care for it the best you can. And then it grows all by itself into a beautiful flower.
“工作确实非常具有挑战性，”她说,”我很高兴我有过一份工作。不过，工作就像是一个敞开口的气球，你只有一直给它充气，它才会保持膨胀。但孩子就像是一粒种子，你给它浇水，尽自己最大努力来呵护它。然后，它会自己成长起来，变成一朵美丽的花儿。”