陈年往事

亲爱的婆婆：

二十世纪四十年代末期，太平洋战争宣告结束，国共内战方兴未艾。动荡的年代，公公从汕头飘洋南渡，乘了一周的轮船方在山打根落脚，最后转移至新山，与友人合伙共做零售杂货小生意谋生，略有积蓄便寄款回乡孝敬父母。贫瘠的时代，通讯迟缓，资源短缺，家乡回寄的收据回条，纸轻情义重，上印“佳音捷报”四个字。这种“唐山批”的小信筏妈妈最清楚，都记载隔着海洋的亲情之音，都是苦情，南洋谋生苦，家乡生活苦，两边思念苦，这种苦情也许是在南洋出生的这一代所无法体会出的。婆婆，在您的记忆中还可记得这些陈年往事？还是已随着时光的流逝而逐渐淡忘在我们的脑海里了？祝：合家平安。

Beauty

And a poet said, speak to us of beauty.

And he answered: Where shall you seek beauty and how shall you find her unless herself be your way and your guide? And how shall you speak of her except she be the weaver of your speech.

The aggrieved and the injured say, “Beauty is kind and gentle. Like a young mother half – shy of her own glory she walks among us.”

And the passionate say, “Nay, beauty is a thing of might and dread. Like the tempest she shakes the earth beneath us and the sky above us.”

The tired and the weary say, “Beauty is of soft whisperings. She speaks in our spirit. Her voice yields to our silences like a faint light that quivers in fear of the shadow.”

But the restless say, “We have heard her shouting among the mountains. And with her cries came the sound of hoofs and the beating of wings and the roaring of lions.”

At night the watchmen of the city say, “Beauty shall rise with the dawn from the east.” And at noontide the toilers and the wayfarers say, “We have seen her leaning over the earth from the windows of the sunset.”

In winter say the snow-bound, “She shall come with the spring leaping upon the hill.”

And in the summer heat the reapers say, “We have seen her dancing with the autumn leaves and we saw a drift of snow in her hair.”

All these things have you said of beauty. Yet in truth you spoke not of her but of needs unsatisfied and beauty is not a need but an ecstasy. It is not a mouth thirsting nor an empty hand stretched forth, but rather a heart enflamed and a soul enchanted. It is not the image you would see or the song you would hear, but rather an image you though you close your eyes and a song you hear though you shut your ears. It is not the sap within the furrowed bank, nor a wing attached to a claw, but rather a garden for ever in bloom and a flock of angels for ever in flight.

People of Orphalese, beauty are life when life unveils her holy face.

But you are life and you are the veil.

Beauty is eternity gazing at itself in a mirror. But you are eternity and you are the mirror.

我的公公

亲爱的婆婆：

清明时节倍思亲，想到看我长大的公公，不禁泪下。公公去世已经二十多年了，他是我心目中的“圣人”，一辈子没有坏习气，从不口出恶言，孝顺父母，友爱兄弟，爱护妻小，邻里和睦。公公勤劳节俭，严肃，不苟言笑，但左邻右舍人人都敬重他，子女们都敬畏他。这一生一世，我都不敢或忘记公公的身教和遗教。
虽然公公已经不在世了，但每次见到公公灵位前祭拜的黑啤酒及点燃过的烟蒂让我颇为感动姨姨们对公公的那份孝心。所谓有孝才有福，有愿就有力，自造福田，自得福缘。祝幸福快乐。

Work And Pleasure

To be really happy and really safe, one ought to have at least two or three bobbies and they must all be real. It is no use starting late in life to say: “I will take an interest in this or that.” Such an attempt only aggravates the strain of mental effort. A man may acquire great knowledge of topics unconnected with his daily work and yet hardly get any benefit or relief. It is no use doing what you like; you have got to like what you do. Broadly speaking, human beings may be divided into three classes: those who are toiled to death, those who are worried to death and those who are bored to death. It is no use offering the manual labourer, tired out with a hard week’s sweat and effort, the chance of playing a game of football or baseball on Saturday afternoon. It is no use inviting the politician or the professional or business man, who has been working or worrying about serious things for six days, to work or worry about trifling things at the weekend.

It may also be said that rational, industrious, useful human beings are divided into two classes: first, those whose work is work and whose pleasure is pleasure and secondly, those whose work and pleasure are one. Of these the former are the majority. They have their compensations. The long hours in the office or the factory bring with them as their reward, not only the means of sustenance, but a keen appetite for pleasure even in its simplest and most modest forms. But Fortune’s favoured children belong to the second class. Their life is a natural harmony. For them the working hours are never long enough. Each day is a holiday and ordinary holidays when they come are grudged as enforced interruptions in an absorbing vocation. Yet to both classes the need of an alternative outlook, of a change of atmosphere, of a diversion of effort, is essential. Indeed, it may well be that those whose work is their pleasure are those who most need the means of banishing it at intervals from their minds.

孙子怎么能不来看婆婆

亲爱的婆婆：

清明时节雨纷纷，路上行人欲断魂。
借问酒家何处有，牧童谣指杏花村。

每当清明节快到时，就会想起杜牧这首诗。清明节也称为孝亲节，让我们在有生之年孝顺感恩年长之辈，不让它在我们生命中出现任何遗憾，所以在时间的许可下，我会常去探望婆婆，要不然就写信问候婆婆。我最记得婆婆曾对我说：“孙子，你怎么能不来看我。”因此我务必好好把握机会常写信给婆婆。
最后我诚心以感恩之心感谢婆婆对我的照顾，没有婆婆的关照，也没今日的我。婆婆在我的心目中无人可取代。婆婆永远是我那位和蔼可亲的至亲。祝：安康

Friendship

Your friend is you needs answered. He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanks giving. And he is your board and your fireside, for you come to him with your hunger and you seek for peace.

When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the “nay” in your own mind, nor do you withhold the “ay”; and when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart; for without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.

When you part from your friend, you grieve not, for that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.

And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit, for love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.

And let your best be for your friend. If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also, for what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?

Seek him always with hours to live, for it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness. And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter and sharing of pleasures, for in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.

谢谢婆婆

亲爱的婆婆：

谢谢婆婆把我妈妈从老远的潮安带下南洋，所以才造就了今天的我。婆婆以坚强不拔的精神养育了每一位女儿成长，更期望她们都有好的归宿；而且还要为她们的子女们操心。婆婆辛苦了一辈子，不为什么，只为能让生命能延续下去。婆婆对子女们的爱是一份清静无染的爱，无分别心，无求回报；所以婆婆活得快乐自在，没有烦恼；反而是姨姨们为婆婆担忧太多了，为自己寻找烦恼。其实婆婆已经尽力去做好人，放下执著活在当下了；所以我们必须去学习婆婆的人生智慧。
人生犹如一场戏，种种的烦恼，要随着幕升幕落而消逝，不要执著于心上，若能时时刻刻消除内心的烦恼，化为一股清凉的悲心，即是婆婆的智慧了。祝：健康幸福