Heaven's little helpers 天上來的小助教

From an email I sent earlier this week:

這星期寄出的一封email:

Over dinner at Nonzero last night, my friend William told me what someone told him dogs really are - they are god's little helpers, sent down to earth, to us.

昨天在非零吃飯時，朋友William跟我們說其實狗是上帝派來人間的小助教

Here is my interpretation.

我是這麼解讀的

They teach us about life through theirs - the happiness of birth, the fun of watching a life grow and develop, the importance and joy of companionship, the responsibility we have in taking care of them when they grow old and the ability of letting them go when the heavens needs them back.

狗朋友們透過它們的一生教導我們如何面對生老病死
像是新生命的喜悅，看東西成長的趣味，一個伴的重要性和帶來的快樂，照顧病人的責任感，還有當神仙們要它們回去時，放手的面對

If we are fortunate, we will have dogs since we are children. And if we continue to be fortunate, we will have dogs with us throughout our life until the end; and during this time, we will have had four or five generations of dogs. With each life that we walk with each dog, we grow a little bit. And after four or five walks of life we have with our dogs, we will have had enough practice in life that we know what to treasure and know how to let go.

我們如果幸運的話，從小就開始養狗
如果能夠繼續有這福氣的話，我們可以繼續養狗，養到我們自己生命的最後
所以一生，或許會有四或五代的狗
每經歷過一次生老病死，我們自己也成長一些
同樣的過程，四或五回之後，我們自己對人生的練習也足夠了，也學會了如何珍惜和放手

Treasuring and letting go - quite possibly the two most important lessons in life.

珍惜和放手，這或許就是人生最重要的兩堂課

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Twenty-fours after hearing this story, I learned that one of our dogs' cancer is back, less than one month after an operation to remove cancerous tissue. It's devastating news, but at least I don't feel as bad. I think this story serves two purposes - to comfort, and to remind us of the important things in life.

才聽完這故事24小時，來了一封email跟我說我們一隻不到一個月前才開過刀的狗，癌細胞又復發了
難過極了，但才聽了這故事，還是有些幫助
我覺得這故事有兩個功能 - 安慰，還有提醒我們人生什麼最重要