What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word “property”? Your mind may go to a piece of real estate. But you might also consider “a quality or trait belonging to an individual or thing”; for instance, t…

My dear friend Sally wanted to give a birthday party for one of her friends. She knew her friend had been experiencing a tough time, and Sally desired to help lift her spirits. However, Sally was unemployed and didn’t have extra money to purchase…

When Carlotta was young, she thought her mother had a remarkable gift for recognizing other people. But Carlotta’s mother was normal. It was Carlotta who was remarkable. She had a rare condition called prosopagnosia. She couldn’t recognize …

My tired minivan has a digital readout with initials DTE: Distance ’Til Empy. It gives me a precise mileage countdown. Most newer cars these days have this feature. It’s a handy one: knowing exactly how far I can go before I need fill up is…

As Franco Zeffirelli prepared to film his critically acclaimed version of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, he made a daring decision. He chose two unknowns to play the lead characters and insisted they be close to the age of the characters as Shak…

“I love you. I’ll never leave you.” Julia saved her husband’s text message so she could read it whenever she was afraid. A troubled childhood had left her with a fear of loved ones abandoning her. She’d often ask for reass…

Aristotle said that no one can be friends with a god. Why? Because friendship requires equality, and what god would step down from their heavenly status to become equal with lowly human beings?
I wonder what Aristotle would’ve done if he’d…

Josephine Butler, a prominent minister’s wife, found herself campaigning for the rights of women accused (often unjustly) of being “ladies of the night,” those seen in society as the “least desirables.” Spurred on by her d…

Tim’s hotel room seemed extra dark at night. What if he got up at night and slipped and fell because he couldn’t see? But when Tim did get up, he was surprised to see a bright light shining from underneath the bed—lighting his path. A…

After a late summer thunderstorm ripped through our city, we had to deal with tree damage to our house plus a major cleanup of our leaf-and-branch-strewn yard. As I spent the following day dealing with the damage and the tree debris, I tried to humor m…