名稱：58 Develop Your Own Helping Rituals
內容簡介：
晨讀英語美文 文化百科
[00:03.09]If you want your life to stand for peace and kindness,
[00:08.53] it's helpful to do kind, peaceful things.
[00:11.62]One of my favorite ways to do this
[00:14.88] is by developing my own helping rituals.
[00:17.98]These little　acts of kindness are opportunities
[00:21.63]to be of service and reminders of
[00:25.18] how good it feels to be kind and helpful.
[00:27.98]We live in a rural area of the San Francisco Bay Area.
[00:32.63]Most of what we see is beauty and nature.
[00:35.94]One of the exceptions to the beauty is the litter
[00:39.43]that some people throw out of their windows
[00:42.50]as they are driving on the rural roads.
[00:45.47]One of the few drawbacks to living out in the boondocks is
[00:50.26]that public services, such as litter collection,
[00:53.04]are less available than they are closer to the city.
[00:56.68]A helping ritual that I practice regularly with my two children
[01:01.62] is picking up litter in our surrounding area.
[01:04.93] We've become so accustomed to doing this
[01:07.80] that my daughters will often say to me in animated voices,
[01:12.10] “There's some litter, Daddy, stop the car!”
[01:15.26]And if we have time, we will often pull over
[01:19.05]and pick it up. It may seem strange,
[01:21.88] but we actually enjoy it.
[01:24.16]We pick up litter in parks, on sidewalks,
[01:27.50]practically anywhere.
[01:29.42]Once I even saw a complete stranger
[01:32.56] picking up litter close to where we live.
[01:35.41]He smiled at me and said,
[01:37.64]“I saw you doing it, and it seemed like a good idea.”
[01:41.70]Picking up litter is only one of an endless supply
[01:46.13]of possible helping rituals.
[01:47.87]You might like holding a door open for people,
[01:51.16]visiting lonely elderly people in nursing homes,
[01:54.50]or shoveling snow off someone else's driveway.
[01:58.00]Think of something that seems effortless yet helpful.
[02:02.16]It's fun, personally rewarding,
[02:05.14]and sets a good example.
[02:08.36] Everyone wins.