Shiny red apples
Christmas 1984 was our family’s third Christmas away from Europe, and the remote village in eastern India where we had moved to help as volunteers had become a second hom... »
Personal Accounts
He came to us
Recently, I was reading about the history of Christmas and where our various Christmas traditions come from, including ones that may have originated in pagan rituals or f... »
Repainting the angel
The statuette of an angel holding the hand of a little boy had been placed on a neglected back shelf in an antique shop. It was covered with soot and dust, lost amidst th... »
The Christmas shoes
The Christmas season—undoubtedly my favorite season of the year—holds many unforgettable memories. It was on a snowy December day when I was six years old that our family... »
Sky ballet
It was Christmas morning, and my wife and I were enjoying a break at the end of what had been a hectic December. The view from our hotel balcony—a pristine lake surrounde... »
1,001 gifts for Jesus
Last Christmas, the magical spark never came. I was bothered by all the commercialism that plagues our city months in advance. Somewhere between the flashy ads in magazin... »
What would the Birthday Boy like?
I love my birthday and everything that comes with it—especially the many congratulatory phone calls, text messages, emails, Facebook wishes, and greeting cards from famil... »
Back on track
I use the GPS on my phone all the time. For someone like me, who’s always on the move, life is so much easier with easy clear directions. But I also remember the sinking... »
Blind man’s lead
I had just moved to Winnipeg, Canada, and the Internet connection at my apartment had yet to be installed, so I was on my way to a nearby café to get online and do some w... »
The magic of forgiveness
“I wish you had been born a boy!” I don’t know how many times I heard my mother say that as I was growing up. I understand better now, considering her own upbringing and... »
Riverside walk
Long discussions regarding possible changes made the future seem foggier by the day. Several years earlier, my husband and I, together with a few friends, had founded a h... »
Down in the salt mines
We went down 378 spiraling steps into the Wieliczka Salt Mine in southern Poland, wondering what we would find and thinking about how easy it would be to get lost in the... »
Moment by moment
When our son Pete was three, he was diagnosed with leukemia, and from one moment to the next, our lives changed drastically. There are no instruction manuals that can pre... »