“Dear Diary” Moment

It was an early –winter morning. I was at the moment sitting calmly in the hall. Opposite me was a clock hanging high on the wall.

In tranquility it is easy to set one’s mind working; it is also easy to catch light sounds hardly audible in usual times, ticks away 60 times a minute to fulfil its duty—the only work it does, and persistently. It is kept busy all the time, and thus regarded as “a non-stop working hand.”

Listening to the rhythmical tapping of the clock, I suddenly found out that the sound emitted by the second hand.”

A close observation revealed that it “went downhill” from 0 to 30 seconds and then “climbed upwards” from 31 to 60 seconds.

While it is descending it seemingly goes effortlessly. Benefited by gravitation it can walk down evenly step by step. When it comes to point of 20 it gives the impression of acceleration, for this leg of journey seems the most facilitating. Actually of course the hand never accelerates as a result of descending.

“Climbing upwards” seems to entail efforts. It shows up the meaning of the phrase “aim high.” When the hand goes from 31 to 60 seconds it is aiming high and its sound becomes weaker and weaker. It seems to tell us that it immerses itself in hard work reticently striving for highest point. Don’t you see the composure and steadiness of those heroic personalities that have put their shoulders to the wheel?

The clink of the second hand in descending suddenly begins to “weaken” when it starts to climb. Does it mean that Heaven, through the clock’s ticking, gives us a hint of some hidden truth?

The truth is immortal. Here my association has led to a revelation. It can be converted to rules of action. This also testifies that “attention to trivialities helps one to learn a lot” is really a golden saying.

Thank you, the clock on the wall! Even more thanks to your second hand—the non-stop working hand.

Cookie and Spotty were neighbor dogs who met every day to play together. Like a pair of dogs you can find in most any neighborhood , these two loved each other and played together so often that they had worn a path through the grass of the field between their respective houses.

One evening, Cookie’s family noticed that Cookie hadn’t returned home. They went looking for him with no success. Cookie didn’t show up the next day, and, despite their efforts to find him, by the next week he was still remain missing.

Curiously, Spotty showed up at Cookie’s house alone. Barking, whining and generally pestering Busy with their own lives, they just ignored the nervous little neighbor dog.

Finally, one morning Spotty refused to take “no” for an answer. Frank, Cookie’s owner, was steadily harassed by the furious, adamant little dog. Spotty followed Frank about, barking insistently, then darting toward a nearby empty lot and back, as if to say, “Follow me! It’s urgent!”

Eventually, Ted followed the frantic Spotty across the empty lot as Spotty paused to race back and bark encouragingly. The little dog led the man under a tree, past clumps of trees, to a desolate spot a half mile from the house. The Ted found his beloved Cookie alive, one of his hind legs crushed in a steel leghold trap. Horrified, Frank now wished he’s taken Spotty’s earlier appeals seriously. Then Frank noticed something quite remarkable.

Spotty had done more than simply led Frank to his trapped friend. In a circle around the injured dog, Ted found an array of dog food and table scraps—which were later identified as the remains of every meal Spotty had been fed that week!

Spotty had Been visiting Brownie regularly, in a single-minded quest to keep his friend alive by sacrificing his own comfort. Spotty had evidently stayed with Cookie to protect him from predators, snuggling with him at night to keep him warm and nuzzling him to keep his spirits up.

Cookie’s leg was treated by a veterinarian and he recovered. For many years thereafter, the two families watched the faithful friends frolicking and chasing each other down that will-worn path between their houses.

人類和狗相伴至少超過1.3年萬年了,因此我們對它們大多數形體語言都很熟悉。實際上，狗和它們的野生動物親戚用同樣的方式與我們交流，我們明白它們使用的一些語言，但我們也許是以自己的方式在解釋它們的語言。如果你回到家，你的寵物狗跳起來舔成年狼的臉，你或許把它看成是興高采烈的歡迎。在狗的語言中，這的確是一種歡迎的表示，從早到晚卻略有不同。事實上，狗的這種行為與一只饑餓的狼崽舔成年狼的臉，是在祈求成年狼將食物吐出來喂給它吃。狗伸出爪子讓我們握，看上去特別像人優雅地握手，因此，我們可能認為我們教給了它一種全新的語言，但狼之間也互相伸爪子示意，或者表示屈服，或者表示邀請同耍。而擺出一個看似“鞠躬邀玩”的姿勢（即團縮著身，腦袋低垂，屁股翹起，尾巴搖擺）則明確地表示這只小狗能夠繼續安全地咬同伴戲耍，而不會被認為是挑釁攻擊。在狗的所有形體語言中，最明顯的一種莫過於尾巴的搖擺了。靈長目動物的尾巴基本上是為了使其在樹之間跳躍時保持平衡的，但是許多物種開始逐漸用尾巴來進行交流。尾巴向上翘並搖擺是友好、玩耍、期待和興奮的表示；夾著尾巴猛烈地搖擺則表示這狗很緊張。我們知道狗搖尾巴純粹是為了交流。當狗得到食物後是常常會先搖尾巴.但是錄影顯示如果沒有人在場,狗得到食物時是不搖尾巴的。尾巴是一個如此重要的交流工具，以至於很多品種狗的尾尖上都有一個黑或白的小點，使尾巴的動作更加明顯。有一種非常善於交流的非洲野狗，其尾巴尖上就帶有非常明顯的黑白點.