平时我们只关注于琐碎甚至无意义的小事，而忽略了对于司空见惯的经历做出反应。作者通过医院的一次经历懂得了生活的艺术在于要懂得取舍。
The art of living is to know when to hold fast and when to let go. For life is paradox: it enjoins us to cling to its many gifts even while it ordains their eventual reliquishment. The rabbis of old put it this way:" A man coms to this world with his fist clenched, but when he dies, his hand is open."
Surely we ought to hold fast to life, for it is wondrous, and full of a beauty that breaks through every pore of God`s own earth. We know that this is so, but all too often we recognize this thuth only in our backward glance when we remember what was and then suddenly realize that it is no more.
We remember a beauty that faded, a love that waned. But we remember with far greater pain that we did not see that beauty when it flowered, that we failed to respond with love when it was tendered.
A recent experience re-taught me this truth. I was hospitalized following a severe heart attack and had been in intensive care for several days. It was not a pleasant place.
One moring, I had to have some additional tests. The required machines were located in a building at the opposite end of the hospital, so I had to be wheeled across the courtyard on a gurney.
As we emerged from our unit, the sunlight hit me. That`s all there was to my experience. Just the light of the sun. And yet how beautiful it was-how warming, how sparking, how brilliant! I looked to see whether anyone else relished the sun`s golden glow, but everyone was hurrying to and fro, most with eyes fixed on the ground. Then I remember how often I , too, had been indifferent to the grandeur of each day, too preoccupied with petty and somtimes even mean concerns to respond from that experience is really as commonplace as was the experience itsself: life`s gifts are precious-but we are too heeless of them.
生活的艺术
生活的艺术是要懂得取舍。因为生活本身就是一个矛盾：它一边告诫我们要珍惜它赋予的一切，一边又注定在最后将其全部收回。古时犹太教的教士们这样说：“一个人来到世上时，手是紧握成拳的，但离开这个世界时，他的手是张开的。”
我们当然应该牢牢抓住生活，因为它奇妙、富有美感，这种美穿透了每一寸土地。我们明白这一点，但是往往只是在我们蓦然回首忆及往事，然后突然意识到好景已不在时，才会对此深有体会。
我们记得已经凋零的美，已经消逝的爱。但是我们却痛苦地忆起，我们没有在美丽绽放的时候看到这份美，没有在爱意绵绵时以爱去回应。
我最近的一次经历再一次让我认识到这个真理。一次严重的心脏病发作后，我住进了医院，在特护区住了好几天。这可不是什么令人愉快的地方。
一天早上，我得再做一些检查，检查所需的器械在医院对面尽头的一座大楼上，因此，我必须躺在轮床上被人推着从院子里走过。
我们动病房里出来的时候，阳光照在了我的身上。这就是我当时所感受的一切。只不过是阳光。但是那阳光多美啊——那么温暖，那么耀眼，那么灿烂！我环顾四周，想看一看还有人在欣赏这金灿灿的阳光，但是人们个个行色匆匆，大都是眼睛盯着地面。这时，我想起了对于每天的阳光我也是经常无动于衷，只关注于琐碎甚至是无意义的小事，而忽略了对于司空见惯的经历做出反应：生活的礼物是珍贵的——但是我们却忽视了它们。
