Roots Deep into the Brave Heart 勇敢之根

馮萍

When I was growing up， I had an old neighbor named Dr. Gibbs. He didnt look like any doctor Id ever known. He never invited us to play in his yard， but he was a kind person.

在我成長(zhǎng)的過(guò)程中，我有一位老鄰居，他叫吉布斯醫(yī)生。他和我認(rèn)識(shí)的其他醫(yī)生不一樣。他從來(lái)沒(méi)有邀請(qǐng)我們?nèi)ニ耐ピ豪锿嫠?，但他是一個(gè)善良的人。

When Dr. Gibbs wasnt not saving people， he was planting trees. He had a large field and wanted to make it a forest.

吉布斯醫(yī)生不是在治病救人，就是在種樹。他有一塊很大的地，他想把這塊地變成一片森林。

The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees. He never watered his new trees. Once I asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled1 them， and that if you watered them， each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker， so you had to make things difficult for them and picked out the weaker trees early on.

這位好醫(yī)生對(duì)種樹方面有一些有意思的想法。他從來(lái)不給樹澆水。有一次我問(wèn)他為什么，他說(shuō)給新種的樹澆水是溺愛(ài)它們。如果你給它們澆水，每棵小樹苗就會(huì)越長(zhǎng)越弱，所以你必須讓它們?cè)谀婢持猩L(zhǎng)，盡早挑出病秧子。

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots， and how trees that werent watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves. Deep roots were very important.

他接著談到：給樹澆水，樹根就淺;不澆水，它們就只能自己在地底深深扎根，根扎得深很重要。

So he never watered his trees. Hed planted an oak2 tree and， instead of watering it every morning， hed beat it with a rolled-up3 newspaper. I asked him why he did that， and he said it was to get the trees attention.

所以他從來(lái)不給他的樹澆水。他種了一棵橡樹，不過(guò)每天早上都不給它澆水，相反，他用卷起來(lái)的報(bào)紙敲打這棵橡樹。我問(wèn)他為什么這樣做，他說(shuō)這樣是為了引起橡樹的注意。

Dr. Gibbs died several years after I left home. Every now and then， I walked by his house and looked at the trees that he planted twenty-five years ago. Theyre big and strong now. I planted some trees a few years ago and carried water to them for a whole summer. After two years of caring too much， whenever a cold wind blows in， they shake a lot.

我離開(kāi)家?guī)啄旰?，吉布斯醫(yī)生去世了。我時(shí)常從他的房子前面走過(guò)，看看他25年前種的那些樹，它們現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)長(zhǎng)得又大又壯。幾年前，我也種了幾棵樹。整個(gè)夏天，我都抬水過(guò)去澆灌它們。經(jīng)過(guò)兩年的精心照料，可每次冷風(fēng)呼嘯時(shí)，它們還是搖晃得很厲害。

Every night before I go to bed， I check on my two sons. I often pray that their lives will be easy. But lately Ive been thinking that its time to change my prayer. I know my children are going to face difficulties. Theres always a cold wind blowing somewhere in life， so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart， so when the rains fall and the winds blow， they could face it bravely and wont be beaten down.

每天晚上睡覺(jué)前，我都會(huì)去看一下我的兩個(gè)兒子。我總是祈禱他們的生活會(huì)一帆風(fēng)順。但是后來(lái)我想，是時(shí)候該改變我的祈禱了。我知道我的孩子將來(lái)會(huì)面臨困難。人生路上總會(huì)有冷風(fēng)呼嘯，所以我們要祈禱的是，勇敢之心在他們心里深深扎根，這樣，當(dāng)狂風(fēng)暴雨來(lái)臨時(shí)，他們都能勇敢面對(duì)，不被打倒的。endprint