An old man was sitting on the yard with his 45-year-old son. Suddenly a dove¹ landed on the ground.

The father asked his son, ”What is this?”

The son replied, ”It is a dove.”

After a few minutes, the father asked his son for the second time, ”What is this?” The son said, ”Father, I have just told you. It's a dove.”

After a little while, the old father asked his son for the third time, ”What is this?” This time the son could not control his anger and shouted,”It's a dove, a dove. Why do you keep asking me the same question again and again? I have told you so many times 'IT IS A DOVE. ' Don't you understand this? ”

The old man silently² took out an old diary, turned to a page and showed it to his son. Though a little impatient³, his son began to read it.

“Today my little son aged three was sitting with me on the yard, when a dove landed on the ground and my son asked me what it was. I smiled at him, said it was a dove and hugged him. After a while he asked me again and I did the same. Pointing to the same dove, he asked me what it was 23 times and I kept on answering his question and hugging him every time.”

Something gently touched his son's heart. His face turned red with shame for being so impatient to his father and he hugged him tightly⁴.

Your parents have given you many things in their lifetime⁵, but you may not realize that until they are gone.

文章意思：一个老人和他45岁的儿子坐在院子里。突然一只鸽子落在地上。

父亲问他的儿子：“这是什么?”

儿子回答：“是一只鸽子。”

几分钟后，父亲再次问他的儿子：“这是什么?”

儿子说：“爸爸，我刚刚已经告诉过你了，这是一只鸽子。”

又过了一会，老父亲第三次问他的儿子：”这是什么?”

这次儿子没能控制脾气大声道：“一只鸽子，鸽子，你为什么一直问我同一个问题?我已经告诉过你很多次了‘这是一只鸽子’。难道你不懂?”

老人沉默地拿出旧日记，翻开其中一页给儿子看，虽然有点不耐烦，儿子还是开始读了起来。

“今天我正和三岁的儿子坐在院子里，当一只鸽子落在地上时，儿子问我那是什么，我笑着对他说那是一只鸽子，并抱了抱他。过了一会儿儿子又问我那是什么，我和之前一样回答了，儿子指着同一只鸽子问了我23次，而我也一直在回答这个问题，并且每次都会拥抱他。

某些东西触动了儿子的心。他的脸变红了，因为对父亲很没有耐心而感到惭愧，他紧紧地抱住了他。

其实父母在生命中已经给了你很多东西，但是你可能直到他们离去都没有意识到。