1、Gifts Grow on This Tree

After so many wonderful summers, it was my rainy season when is seemed that I couldn't feel the sun's warmth on my face.

In July, I felt   36   as I watched my beloved niece succumb to （屈服）breast cancer   37   fighting for two years. Ten days later, a tiny bit of hope   38   when I witnessed my first grandson burst into the world. Three days after his birth, my tears of joy turned to   39   of sorrow when a younger brother died suddenly in an accident.

In order to cope with the sadness, I needed to feel that heaven was   40   too.    41   in this rainy season, I refused to go out of my own backyard. It was at that time that I noticed that the apple tree had grown up. It was easy to   42   the apple tree for granted,   43   it has been there when we bought the house about 15 years ago. And I once doubted seriously   44   it would survive for the three growing kids and a dog.    45   , we had no expectations. Far as we knew, the tree would never produce   46   crab(酸) apples.

We were wrong. The birds   47   them first and flew away with the ones that fell. And what made me surprised most is    48   I found a lot of red, shining apples on the top of the tree. Afterwards, fascinated by the apple tree, I always looked at it    49   wonder. Where had I been so that I hadn't noticed its   50   over the years? Why was I always so busy that I didn't   51  the simple beauty? Without any help from me, these apples found their way.

All too often, that is the way our lives go. Even in summer, we are often   52   busy rushing here and there to really enjoy the special   53   that surround us.

With the sun on my face, I   54   a basket of apples like a farm girl and baked apple pies and   55   them to my joyful granddaughters. They were excited at the apples from the tree.

A lot of the sadness disappeared that afternoon.