A friend’s wife, a master seamstress, made a loving plan before she passed away from a long illness. She donated all her sewing equipment to our town’s sewing guild, providing sewing machines, cutting tables, and more for classes teaching n…

In the aftermath of Turkey’s devastating earthquake in February 2023, a haunting photo came across newswires: a father sitting amid ruins holding a hand extending from the rubble—the hand of his daughter. We see the edge of the mattress whe…

Meggie’s ten years of drug use kept her in and out of jail. Without a life change, she’d soon return. Then she met Hans, a former addict who almost lost his hand when a vein ruptured due to his substance abuse. “That was the first tim…

At the age of fifty-one, Ynes Mexia (1870-1938) decided to study botany, enrolling as a college freshman. Over her thirteen-year career, she traveled across Central and South America, discovering five hundred new species of plants. She’s not…

On my free day in Paris during a visit a few years ago, I had some time to roam around the famed city by myself before meeting a friend by the Eiffel Tower for dinner. All was fine until my phone’s battery died. I didn’t have a map, so I wa…

Recently, my brother Scott acquired our dad’s military service records from World War II. As I studied the pages, there was nothing startling or shocking—nothing about who Dad was. There were mere facts. Data. It was interesting to read but…

Medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas endured much to dedicate himself to a life of seeking God. His family imprisoned him for a year in an attempt to discourage him from joining the Dominican order, a monastic group dedicated to a life of simplicity, stu…

Brian had been with the heart specialist for more than an hour. His friend remained in the waiting room, praying for wisdom and healing for his ailing friend. When Brian finally returned to the waiting room, he showed him the pile of papers he’d …

In the early 1900s, laws restricted Black people and immigrants in the US from renting or buying property in Coronado, California. A Black man named Gus Thompson (who’d been born into slavery) had purchased land earlier and built a boarding home in Cor…

There was no mention made of the stuff we often spend our lives chasing. That’s what palliative care nurse Bronnie Ware discovered as she sat with the dying. She intentionally questioned them: “Would you do anything differently if you could…