It was three years ago this May that I was diagnosed with breast cancer. I went in for a routine checkup on my 40th birthday and left with a calendar full of followup appointments in hopes of pinning down an exact diagnosis.
That day sent our entire family and our circle of friends into a whirlwind of pain, but also ... Read More
When we moved into our house four years ago, we hired a company to install an underground invisible fence in our yard. We wanted to keep our beloved GoldenDoodle, Dakota, safe from cars on the road and we wanted to keep our neighbors’ yards safe from Doodle doody.
We put a special collar on Dakota and walked her slowly and gently ... Read More
I have yet to meet someone who says, “Nope. I’m not a kind person and I have no intention of changing.”
We might agree that we have a little work to be done in the kindness area, but generally people seem to think they are doing a pretty good job of treating others well.
In a study of 100 young people with ... Read More
Megan Murphy lives with open hands. Instead of clenching her fingers around her stuff, her ideas, her time, she greets people palms up, freely giving what she can to help another along the path of life.
Isn’t that a beautiful way of living?
Certainly there are rocks along Megan’s path, but most of them are colorful and filled with inspiring ... Read More
I was getting out of the shower the other morning when a sharp little pain shot through my right breast. For anyone keeping track, my right breast is the healthy one. It’s the left breast that was removed three years ago after a cancer diagnosis.
The towel caught my skin wrong and I flinched. My mind immediately filled with one ... Read More
They say there are ties that bind, things that happen in our lives that leave us forever connected and intertwined with others.
But what happens when decades begin to deteriorate our communication with those people?
As Caryl Kiser from southeastern Ohio shares, those ties not only continue to hold, they grow stronger with each knot of kindness.
“Five years ago, after moving back ... Read More
What are you doing right this second?
Reading this, right? But really, where is your mind? Are you in the moment, engaged and thinking about each black and white word on the screen?
Or are you wandering?
Research tells us that people are not paying attention to what they’re doing 47% of the time.
Half the time we’re doing something we’re ... Read More
Jason Kotecki is an artist and a speaker and (as evidenced by his blog below) a gifted writer. His jam is teaching people how to fight “adultitis” — that version of adulthood that says we have to be serious and play it safe and follow a bunch of made up rules. That’s a lesson I’m taking to heart, and I ... Read More
Our lives often intersect for a reason, but isn’t it amazing when we they do, and we actually notice?
Two men, one from Twin Valley, Minn., and the other from Loveland, Colo., have never met in person, but their paths crossed 20 years ago, leading to a beautiful act of kindness today.
Here is their story:
“In October 1998, I was traveling to ... Read More
I was sitting in my chair this morning, having a quiet conversation with God and thinking about all the people I know who are intensely hurting right now.
As each one came to mind, I thought about the terrible things that are happening in their lives and the ways it seems the darkness is winning.
I parked my brain in ... Read More
