radical recovery
Attempting a quadruple toe loop, Olympic skater Jeremy Abbott swiveled into the air and fell. He careened into the rink’s wall and lay clutching his side. Amazingly, Jeremy then stood up and resumed skating. The rest of his routine included two extremely difficult, yet well-executed maneuvers. In the end, his perseverance after a serious mistake won the crowd’s heart.
after the wilderness
If you’ve ever experienced prolonged disappointment or pain, you know it can feel like you’re in the “wilderness”—a barren place where you never seem to reach the much-hoped-for “Promised Land.”
Christmas kindness
My son spent his first decade of life in a warm East Africa climate. For his 10th birthday, I used frequent flier miles and took him to the western part of the US to experience snow.
friends in the fray
Tim Kreider wrote about modern-day busyness in a New York Times opinion column. His piece titled “The ‘Busy’ Trap” included a personal experience in which he contacted a friend about getting together. The friend replied that he was busy but might be persuaded to “ditch work for a few hours” if “something was going on.” Kreider didn’t press for a rendezvous. He described his friend’s busyness as “some vast, churning noise through which he was shouting.”
justice and faith
As a friend and I watched our children play in the pool, I had no idea that I would soon be swimming in my capris. But when I saw our kids struggling to stay above the water, I jumped in. My instinct to separate the boys and help my friend’s child may have seemed strange at first, and even a cold response to my own son. I knew, however, that Micah had been underwater only because he had tried to keep his friend—a nonswimmer—afloat. Sure enough, once separated, Micah swam safely to the side of the pool.
brothers and sisters
Julian and Adrian Riester were born in Buffalo, New York, in 1919. The identical twins lived their lives in sync—attending the same schools (where they enjoyed switching identities and fooling teachers) and taking many trips together over their 92 years on earth. Eventually, they both became Franciscan friars and spent most of their time at New York’s St. Bonaventure University,…
well-aged wisdom
Yam Fot Pau and his wife overcame poverty by pouring their lives into building a successful business, only to see it go bankrupt in 1992. He said at the time, “My philosophy on money is simple: It is important, but it depends on how you get it. . . . I’ve never been afraid of hard work.”
Older people can…
jonathan's example
When Matt Damon hit it big in Hollywood, he bought two Jeep Grand Cherokees—one for him, and one for his best buddy, Ben Affleck. In an interview with People magazine, he said, “That was our dream car. We flipped a coin on the color. We both wanted hunter green and I won; he got black.” I had to smile when I…
