For me, two of the loveliest words in English are "Life persists".
I1 them years ago as a college student, sitting in the library, 2, working on a paper. Out of nowhere, those words came 3 off the page in a quote: "In the midst of death life persists; in the midst of 4 truth persists; in the midst of darkness light persists."
Suddenly I wasn't unhappy and impatient any more. Then I called my granddad. I loved to talk with him. And I was5 to hear what he'd think of it. He had poor hearing, so I had to repeat it a few times, but once he 6 it, he laughed. "All I can say to that is totally7,"he said on the phone. I told him how glad I was, after a long winter, to finally see spring and 8 to find that quote. "Why is that?" he asked. "Well, spring is a sure 9 that life persists. And it just makes me 10."
He laughed again, and then in his lovely voice, he recited to me his11"spring time" words: "The desert shall rejoice(欣喜), and 12 as the rose."
Many years later,13 my husband and I drove across a desert with many wildflowers and blooming cactuses(仙人掌), I could almost hear my granddad laughing: "The desert shall rejoice."
Life persists, and so do we, in the silence of 14 and the blooming of cactuses;and in the dead of winter and the green of spring. Spring 15 us that we're alive forever.
