Some time ago, Sofan and I were visiting some friends in the country. We were staying a beautiful little guest cabin, surrounded by fruit trees, flowers and even a few goats. Painted above the doorway in brightly coloured, flowing letters were the words:

Your mind is a garden.
Your thoughts are the seeds.
You can grow flowers or
You can grow weeds...

不久前，我和索芬于乡间访友，暂居在一个给客人住的小木屋里。木屋很是漂亮，四周果树环绕，花开遍野，甚至还有几只山羊在屋旁踯躅。屋门上几行漆字，颜色鲜亮，字体流畅。写的是：

心如花园，思想为种。
既得繁花，亦生野稗。

Little did we know it at the time, but this little poem was to have a profoundaffect both on our thought patterns as well as our Artworks.

当时我们不甚懂得这首小诗，但后来它却给我们的思维模式与艺术作品带来了深远的影响。

It started almost as a kind of game. We decided to make a real effort to watch our thoughts and see exactly what it was that we were planting in our own "Mind Gardens". It was difficult at first, but gradually, we began to pay more and more attention to what thoughts were repeatedly flashing across our minds.

刚开始的时候几乎就像一场游戏。我们决定下一番真功夫去观察自己的思想，把我们在自己"心园"里种下的东西看个真切。起初并不容易，但渐渐地，我们开始愈发关注在自己心中反复闪过的是何种思想。

How disturbing it was to discover that many of these "seeds" were extremelynegative thoughts destined to grow patches of thorny thistles and stinging nettles in our daily lives!

当发现大多数的"思之种子"都是很负面的思想，注定要在我们的日常生活中长成一丛丛带刺的野蓟、荨麻的时候，这是多么让人烦恼啊！

• doorway [´dɔ:wei]   n.门口   (初中英语单词)
• affect [ə´fekt]   vt.影响；感动；假装   (初中英语单词)
• extremely [ik´stri:mli]   ad.极端地；非常地   (初中英语单词)
• brightly [´braitli]   ad.明亮地；聪明地   (高中英语单词)
• profound [prə´faund]   a.深奥的；渊博的   (高中英语单词)
• decided [di´saidid]   a.明显的；决定的   (高中英语单词)
• negative [´negətiv]   a.否定的 n.否定词   (高中英语单词)
• repeatedly [ri´pi:tidli]   ad.反复地；再三地   (英语四级单词)
• thorny [´θɔ:ni]   a.多刺的，棘手的   (英语六级单词)