I was at a loss and feeling depressed as I finished a difficult freshman year of college. I had dreamed of becoming a doctor, but I had failed a class and...

One winter morning as I was walking to the church where I am the pastor, I thought of an older couple that lived down the street and wondered if they would...

In my work with adults with developmental disabilities, I spend part of my time in the wood workshop. Often I sit next to Luca, who loves to sand wooden spoons. Sometimes...

I’ve run 25 marathons, and I’ve enjoyed and finished strong in many of them. However, some were not so enjoyable. There was one where I struggled with considerable pain and fatigue...

Shortly after our daughter was born, while my husband was holding her and offering her a bottle, the nurse noticed that our baby was struggling to breathe. Pushing my husband aside,...

The money I had put aside for my church offering had somehow disappeared. It wasn’t a huge sum, but I searched carefully everywhere inside the house and even looked outside, thinking...

Growing up in the ‘70s before on-demand programming and video streaming, my family had one TV with three major channels. When the dramatic miniseries became a popular genre and a new...

I stood alone on the rooftop, watching the city celebrate with fireworks at the promise of the coming year. A failed relationship had left me feeling adrift and unsure of my...

I had just brought my wife home from a cancer operation when a snowstorm hit. I’m in my late 80s and have a bad back, so shoveling the driveway was pressing...

For years, my parents owned a small cottage on the Oregon coast. It was a wonderful retreat and the perfect place to spend summers. But one particularly rough winter, an extreme...