Cassie`s Blog

The World Around You Is An Amazing Place – Take Time To See It 我们生活的世界很精彩 停下脚步看一看

What’s the hurry? Wake up, have a shower, get dressed, grab a snack from the fridge for breakfast, rush off to work, pop in and out of meetings, rush out at the end of the day, only to get home, make dinner, scarf it down, sit in front of the TV, go to bed and hope you wake up so you can do it all over again! 干嘛那么急？急着起床，洗澡，打扮，从冰箱里拿块零食当早餐；赶着去工作，忙着开会，工作结束又急匆匆地赶回家；回到家忙着做饭，忙着收拾，坐在电视机前看电视，赶着去睡觉，然后地第二天早上醒来，继续重新忙碌！

Now imagine if you were leisurely walking a trail in the woods, taking in all the sights, sounds and smells of nature. You had nowhere to be and nothing was hectic. The only thing you had to worry about was maybe stepping in a puddle and getting your socks wet. 现在想像一下，你悠闲地在森林的小径上散步，把一切尽收眼底，倾听大自然的悠美声音，品味大自然的美妙芳香。你不用赶着去哪里，也没什么需要忙忙碌碌，你唯一要担心的，可能只是不小心踩进了水坑弄湿了袜子。

The world around us is an amazing place. Too often we get so used to it that we no longer see it. Consider taking some time out of your day to truly see what’s around you, often right under your nose. Here are a few things from the natural world that I find amazing and try to take in every chance I get. 我们生活的世界很精彩，可是因为我们太过习惯所以反而会漠视。现在就想想从每天的生活中抽出一些时间，看看生活中都在发生些什么，其实很多就在你眼前。下面是我觉得自然世界里很精彩的一些东西，我会抓住每个机会：

1. Northern lights 北极光

We are fortunate enough to live in the Northern hemisphere and at a latitude that allows us to see these wonders quite frequently. It never occurred to me just how special this natural phenomenon was until we were living in Australia. While there, a local radio station was holding a contest asking people what they most wanted to see in their life time and one of the callers said they wish they could see the Northern lights – something we saw at least a few times a month in the winter back home. 我们很幸运可以生活在北半球这样一个纬度，让我们可以经常看到神奇的北极光。我从来没有想过这个自然现象会有多特别，直到我去澳大利亚生活了一段时间我才意识到。住在澳大利亚的时候，当地的音乐电台举行过一个比赛，问人们一生中最想看到的美景是什么，有一位听众打电话进来说很想看到北极光，而那是我冬天回老家时一个月至少能看几次的景色。

2. Hoar frost 霜降

 One of the things I find fascinating is how beautiful everything can be in winter. It’s not just dark, cold and miserable. There are days when you can be fortunate enough to wake up to a fresh snow fall, bright blue skies and hoar frost. It’s a pretty amazing sight when everything is covered in a delicate layer of frost. 另外一件让我觉得很迷人的事情是冬日里的一切看起来都很美，冬季不仅仅代表着黑暗，寒冷和痛苦，也有这样幸运的日子，你起床发现外面刚下过雪，天空碧蓝，四周都是霜降的美景。可以看一层精致的白霜包裹着世界万物，很棒。

3. HUGE snow flakes 大片雪花

 My favorite type of snow is not the type you make snowmen out of or have snowball fights with but rather the big, slow moving, fluffy kind. Watching extra large flakes of snow sluggishly fall to the ground is really quite neat. 我最爱的雪，不是我们可以堆雪人打雪仗的那种，而是那种从空中缓缓飘落的很大片的鹅毛大雪。看着大片的雪花慢慢地落在地上，真的是一种很宁静的美好。

4. Lightning 闪电

I’m not a huge fan of electrical storms and they scare me just a little, but I still find them really amazing and actually quite beautiful. 我并不喜欢电闪雷鸣的天气，因为有点害怕，但是我还是觉得闪电很炫目也超级漂亮。

5. Waterfalls 瀑布

Niagara falls has to be the most impressive waterfalls I’ve seen so far. I was shocked at the shear volume and power of the water as it flows over the edge and how quickly it settles once at the bottom. Watching a waterfall is a bit different to watching a slow moving stream but each beautiful in its own right. 尼亚加拉瀑布是我至今见过的瀑布中最让我印象深刻的。看着那么多的水力量十足地流过边缘，迅速地降落到底部，我觉得很震惊。瀑布和潺潺细流的小溪有些不同，但是都各有各的美。

 6. Flowers 花朵

Where we lived in Australia, it seemed everyone had a rose garden. One afternoon while out on a walk I thought of the old saying “take time to stop and smell the roses” and I did just that. I made a point, that one afternoon, of smelling every rose I came across that was leaning out of the yards over onto the sidewalk. It’s quite amazing how different they all are. Even when the look remarkably similar the smell can be so different. It was quite an experience. It does slow you down but I was able to really see each flower. 住在澳大利亚的时候，感觉家家都有玫瑰园。在有一天下午出门散步时，我想到了那句老谚语：“停下来问问玫瑰的芳香（忙里偷闲）”，然后我真的就照做了。那个下午，我闻遍了每一朵从院子里探出头的玫瑰，它们其实都各有不同，真的很有趣。可能它们每一朵样子很像，但是香味却大有不同。这是一次很美好的经历，我看了每一朵花，它们让我慢下来。

 7. Birds 鸟儿

 I’ve never been a bird-watcher in the hobby sense of the word but last summer I took a special liking to a little blue jay that came by our place every morning. My son and I would put peanuts out for it in the morning and then we’d sit there and watch the little guy as he grabbed one and flew off into a nearby tree to eat it. They are actually quite interesting to watch. 我从来没有把观鸟发展成一门兴趣爱好，但是去年夏天我对每天来我们家的小蓝松鸦有着一种特殊的喜爱。每天早上我和儿子会拿花生给它吃，然后我们就坐在那儿，看着这只可爱的小家伙抓起其中的一粒，飞到附近的树上品尝起来。观察它们的行为真的很有趣。

I could go on about what an amazing place the world around us can be. It’s important that we take the time to not only look at what exists around us but to actually see it as well. Take time today to truly see something that perhaps you’ve walked by a thousand times before but never really noticed. 我还可以继续聊聊我们生活的世界里各种精彩。能够停下脚步，看到我们生活中的事物，真正感受它们的美好，这很重要。就从今天开始，停下来去仔细看看，那些你路过很多次却从未好好注意的各种事物。

What do you find amazing about the world around you? Do you often take time to slow down and see it? 生活中哪些东西让你觉得很精彩？你会停下来认真感受吗？

After a while she climbed the stairs to her bedroom. She opened the trunk that sat gathering dust on the landing. She had dreamed that this moment would be one of great joy, so now the disappointment was all the more acute.  

 Suddenly the air was filled with the unmistakeable scent of George for the trunk contained 5)remnants of their life together, now over fifty years ago, when they had been engaged to be married. There was always hope and while there was hope the contents of the trunk were left to ferment.

With her faithful Smart lying beside her she began to go through every single item. First she picked up a faded ivory envelope which contained the stiff invitation to Michelle’s twenty-first birthday party in London. Michelle was herfirst cousin and it was she who had introduced Rose to George. They had been best friends at school and were then at university together. Rose had fallen in love with George on sight. 

Rose was wrenched back to the present moment and to the painful reminder that George had always been in love with someone else for the next item she pulled out of the trunk was a small photograph of the three of them together in Provence: herself, George and Michelle. She hadn’t been aware that theirs was a friendship with which she could never compete. How love had blinded her to the true nature of her cousin’s friendship with her fiancé.

过了一会儿，她爬上通往卧室的楼梯，打开放在楼梯平台上那积满灰尘的箱子。她曾经梦想过这个时刻会是一大欢乐时刻，因而，现在失望来得更加强烈了。

突然间，空气里毋庸置疑地满是乔治的味道，因为箱子里装着的是他们共同生活的记忆残片，那是50多年前，他们刚刚订婚的时候。生活总存在着希望，而因为希望的存在，箱子里的东西搁在时间的角落里发酵着。

忠心的斯玛特陪伴在旁，罗斯开始仔细查看里面的每一样物品。首先，她拿起一个褪色的象牙色信封，里面装着米歇尔在伦敦举行21岁生日派对时的邀请卡，卡片如今已经变硬了。米歇尔是她的堂姐妹，是她将罗斯介绍给乔治认识的。他们在中学时已是好友，然后就读同一所大学。罗斯见到乔治的第一眼便爱上了他。

她接着从箱子里拿出一张他们三人在普罗旺斯的小合照：她，乔治和米歇尔。这张照片把罗斯“扳回”眼前的时刻，触物伤情，想到乔治一直爱的是别人。 那时的她并没有意识到，他们之间的友谊是一种她无法角逐的友谊。爱情蒙蔽了她，使她看不清米歇尔跟自己未婚夫之间那份友谊的真正本质。

A bosom friend afar brings a distant land near. 海内存知己，天涯若比邻。  

A fall into the pit, a gain in your wit. 吃一堑，长一智。

All time is no time when it is past. 机不可失，时不再来。

Clumsy birds have to start flying early. 笨鸟先飞。

Difficult the first time, easy the second. 一回生，二回熟。

Good wine needs no bush. 酒香不怕巷子深。

He would climb the ladder must begin at the bottom. 千里之行始于足下。

 It is never too late to mend. 亡羊补牢，犹未为晚。