Have you heard the African proverb that says: “If you think you’re too small to make a difference, you haven’t spent a night with a mosquito.” Or perhaps you recall the story of Mary Mallon, nicknamed Typhoid Mary. She was documented as the individual who caused the...
Our busy culture has birthed an industry of time management experts offering tools and tips to be more effective. One of the first things they advise is for clients to reject interruptions. But that’s difficult to do when our whole world has just been interrupted....
A Perfect Storm: Bringing Out the Best or Worst in Us Stress can bring out the worst in people. Financial stress. Health-related stress. Stress due to uncertainty. Stress caused by interruptions. And when a global health crisis of an undetermined duration...
We’re into the month of St. Patrick’s Day and four-leaf clovers. The month when green milk is fun (maybe not). And the month when everyone is a wee bit Irish because we’re hoping for a bit o’ luck to rub off on us. Luck. We hope for good luck and bemoan bad luck. But...
Stories are told of children traumatized when they learn Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny are not real. But what about the lies we believe as adults? Some are obvious, some not so much. I recently read an article about a woman who watered a plant for two years before...
Do you remember the ancient fairy tale about Rumpelstiltskin? A king locked the miller’s daughter in a tower, requiring her to spin straw into gold or lose her life. But each night, a strange little man entered her room and, for a price, spun the straw into gold for...
Scientists say it’s possible for us to see the light of a distant star, farther from the earth than our own sun, after that star has died. The star might be long gone, but we may still benefit from its light gleaming in the heavens today. Mentee This past week I lost...
We want love. We need love. More than one thousand song titles contain the word love. We write books about it. Recite poems. We chase it and sing about it and fall for misconceptions of love. And no matter what we do, we can’t get enough. Maybe that’s because we don’t...
Thirty-five years ago, I stopped a pickpocket. It happened on Nassau Street in lower Manhattan as I watched a man match his stride with a woman in front of him. When he was close enough, he reached into her side coat pocket from behind and lifted out her wallet. She...
Why is quiet such a rare thing in our world? Consider that: when we get into our cars, one of the first things we do is turn on music.when we come home to an empty house, how often is the television turned on for “background noise”?if a group of people are silent for...
Walking in the Light When It’s Dark Have you ever been in a situation where you were walking in a well-lit...
Spiritual Heroes and Practical Obedience Have you heard the story about a man who escapes his boring life by...
Spiritual Growth When God is Silent I don’t usually do well with long periods of silence . . . especially when...