Recently, while reading some stories from Leo Tolstoy’s “Walk in the Light and Twenty-Three Tales,” it struck me how many of his characters were prisoners of time and circumstance. “What Men Live By” features a fallen angel, Michael, who lives as a human being for years while seeking answers to three questions that God has…

Parenting calls on us to bring forth every talent, skill, and virtue we can muster. It shows us, often in technicolor, the many ways in which we fall short and the many aspects of ourselves we can improve. Perhaps the most coveted of all parenting virtues is patience. Whether our children are in the newborn,…

The following is a short collection of my own aphorisms on the subject of patience. While I’m not nearly as witty and profound as the many fine writers who have taken up the genre before me, I find that I enjoy it very much. There is pleasure to be found in trying to craft a…

The other day, I was waiting in line to board a bus in London when a scuffle broke out. A woman was trying to force her way to the front, and two people were pushing back. In Britain, queue-jumping is a crime on a par with farting in an elevator. Even so, when someone told the…

We strive to improve our lives, often because we are dissatisfied with how things are. I know this, because I’ve lived it. I don’t like the way I look, so I try to improve myself. I don’t like my house, so I work to get a better one. I want everyone around me to improve…

A swan father who supports and motivates, and a cygnet who doesn’t give up. What an inspiring moment!

When life is shaking us up and we’re feeling stressed, it can be tough to feel resilient. Resilience helps us to deal with chaos and overwhelm. But how do we create it when we feel like we’re underwater? The first step is to remove things that are adding unnecessary stress. The second step is to…