“I have the right to be happy,” said a teenager as she spoke before a legislature. Yet she could have been anyone anywhere, speaking for everybody. It’s our human cry. One self-help guru even said, “God wants you to be happy.&rd…

Two eight-year-old boys in Maine—a rural American state—made their mark by wearing business suits to school on Wednesdays. Soon “Dapper Wednesdays” became a favorite day, as other classmates and school staff dressed up too. Jame…

Some of the most famous pianists in the world, including Van Cliburn and Vladimir Horowitz, relied on Franz Mohr, chief concert technician at Steinway & Sons in New York, to ensure that their concert pianos were ready for performances. A master pia…

High-wire artist Philippe Petit became famous in 1971 when he walked a tightrope between the towers of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Three years later, he got arrested for an unauthorized walk between the Twin Towers that once distinguished New York&r…

Running coach Jeff Galloway, a former Olympian, teaches a marathon training protocol that has a counterintuitive component to it. New and experienced marathoners are often surprised to learn that he advocates a “run/walk” strategy: alternat…

Our home has a well-stocked, overflowing bookshelf. I have a weakness for beautiful books, especially nice hardcovers, and over the years more and more have been added to the collection. Unfortunately, I haven’t had the time and energy to actuall…

At first, I ignored the card fluttering to the ground. The father and his little girl who dropped it were just twenty feet away, and I was late for work. Surely they would have realized it, I told myself. But they kept walking. My conscience got the be…

Today’s Our Daily Bread Devotional

Late one night, a Kenyan elephant sanctuary received a call that an elephant calf had fallen into a well. The rescue team arrived to cries of despair flooding the darkness and discovered that two-thirds of the baby’s trunk had been lost to hyenas…

When Abigail’s parents died tragically in a car accident, she inherited a large real estate portfolio. She also learned that her parents had arranged to place the portfolio in a trust. For the time being, she could access only enough money for he…