[美文欣賞]

The Wholeness of Life

Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching.

Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice flowers or talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, she can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

[參考譯文]

人生的完整

從前有個圓圈，它丟失了一小段。它想變得完整，于是它到處尋找它所丟失的那部分。由于不完整，它只能滾的非常慢。在路上，它羨慕過花兒，它與蟲子聊過天，它享受了陽光的照耀。它遇到過很多不同的小段，可是沒有一個適合它。所以它把它們丟在路邊，繼續尋找。

有一天，圓圈找到了可以與它完美結合的一小段，它非常高興。它現在終于完整了，不缺任何東西了。它把丟失的那段裝到自己身上，然后滾了起來。它現在是個完整的圓圈了，它可以滾的很快，，快到忽視了花兒，快到沒有時間和蟲子們說話。當它意識到由于它滾的太快，世界變得如此的不同時，它便停了下來，把找到的那段卸下丟在路邊，慢慢地滾走了。

人生的完整性，在于接受自己的缺陷，勇敢地丟棄不切實際的幻想，并且不覺得這樣做是失敗的;人生的完整性，在于知道自己足夠強大，可以承受人生的苦難，可以在失去一個人時仍然覺得自己是完整的。