Perspective
Grandma remembers: the secret of 90
It has become a four-generation tradition to head south of the cities and take in a small-town celebration of fall. Our route winds between soaring bluffs and a shimmering lake. […]
Perspective
Wonderfully made: finding courage to create
I was a sophomore in college when I received the little blue book, a gift from a friend who also wanted to be a writer. At the time I was […]
Perspective
Being resourceful: I can read! I can pray!
“We ate our honey. We ate a lot. Now we have no honey in our honey pot.” With those 17 words, averaging just three letters in length, Jan and Stan […]
Perspective
Searching for silver linings: grace after the storm
Business was good. So good, in fact, that the family company had become one of the largest breweries in New England, producing 300,000 barrels a year and supporting two generations […]
Perspective
Living in largo: in praise of a slower pace
There is an art and a science to slow living. This summer I’m trying to learn both. In music you can measure it. The tempo called “largo” – Italian for […]
Perspective
How to accept criticism: a spiritual exercise
More than 19 million people tuned in to watch the final episode of “Game of Thrones” May 19, making it the most viewed show to ever air on HBO. Yet […]
Perspective
All the news that’s fit to print
“Wife Returned After Having Fine Funeral.” The headline of a 483-word story in the March 15, 1904, edition of The New York Times bore a sly nod to Tom Sawyer. […]
Perspective
Giving joyful witness: how the Holy Spirit stirs the restless
When Pope Francis talks about evangelization, his poster child may well be an immigrant in North Dakota. Sister Brenda Hernandez Valdes, a 34-year-old Daughter of Immaculate Mary of Guadalupe, lives […]
Perspective
The ones who weave: repairing the social fabric
When David Brooks travels the country, he seeks out the good news. The bad news is all too easy to find. As a New York Times columnist writing about the […]
Perspective
Adventure by Catholic terms: ‘You were made for greatness’
All afternoon I had been hunkered over my MacBook, perched above a frozen lake and watching the sun cast pink into the clouds. I was thinking about what lie dormant […]
Perspective
It’s OK to start 2019 with you
I’ve always appreciated the notion of self-care in an Oprah Winfrey, hot-baths-and-expensive-chocolates kind of way. We work so hard, the thinking goes, that we deserve a break here and there. […]
Perspective
Embracing divine revelations, accepting the unknown
It all started with a lost birth certificate. The Holy Spirit was at work that day and hasn’t slowed down since. My aunt Jan has always known she was adopted, […]