If you want your life to stand for peace and kindness, it's helpful to do kind, peaceful things. One of my1ways to do this is by developing my own helping rituals (习惯). These little2of kindness are opportunities to be of service and reminders of how good it feels to be kind and helpful.
We live in a rural area of the San Francisco Bay Area.3of what we see is the beauty of nature. One of the exceptions to the beauty is the4that some people throw out of their windows as they are5on the rural roads. One of the few drawbacks(缺点) to living out the boondocks（偏远地区）is that 6services, such as litter collection, are less available than those closer to the city.
A helping ritual that I practice7 with my two children is picking up litter in our surrounding area. We've become so8 doing this that my daughters will often say to me in animated(兴致勃勃)9, “There's some litter, Daddy, stop the car!” And if we have10, we will often pull over and pick it up. It seems strange, but we actually 11 it. We pick up litter in parks, on sidewalks, practically12. Once I even saw a complete stranger picking up litter close to where we13. He smiled at me and said, “I saw you doing this, and it seemed like a good idea.”
Picking up litter is only one of an endless supply of possible helping rituals. You might like14a door open for people, visiting lonely old people in nursing homes, or shoveling snow from someone else's driveway. Think of something that seems effortless yet helpful. It's fun, personally rewarding, and15a good example. Everyone wins.
