When I was growing up as a boy in the South, there was a cemetery on a little hill beside the country church my family attended. It was an old cemetery, with sunken squares of grass and crooked headstones popping out of the ground, creating a scene you’d expect to find in a Frontier novel [...]
Read more →It’s not uncommon for people to go through periods of time when they feel like they just aren’t good enough or they don’t measure up. While for some people these feelings may last only a moment or a day, for others it’s a continuous tape that plays through their mind. Often times these feelings of [...]
Read more →Who’s the greatest person you know? I’ll give you a second or two in order to think about it. Whose name came to mind and why did you pick that person? There is a principle my wife and I have tried to teach our children that you might find helpful when answering that [...]
Read more →Almost everyone is connected in some way by someone who has cancer. This disease has a devastating effect on the lives of the victims as well as their family and friends. Although it’s hard to ignore the physical pain and scars left by this monster, cancer can lead to something positive and can be a [...]
Read more →Do you remember hearing the phrase, “practice makes perfect” when you were a child? Although the phrase in and of itself is meant to encourage effort, when it is internalized and reinforced by a perfectionist parent or two, it can become the soil where chronic unhappiness and common mental illness can grow. Perfectionism seeps [...]
Read more →As I sit in my office on a cold, snowy day, I find myself staring vacantly into the computer screen. It is full of images, scrolling messages, blinking signs, and ads flashing continuously tempting me to click on an icon for the chance to win some fabulous prize. In addition, my cell phone is vibrating, [...]
Read more →You could tell that they were sisters. The hairdos gave it away almost immediately. When Gertie and Madge walked around their small Southern town, an immobile helmet of hair topped off every outfit. Both women styled and sprayed their locks to impressive fullness and height—they teased, they cemented, and they colored away the grays. [...]
Read more →In just a few weeks, the days will become shorter, through what we know as daylight savings time. It will be dark when most of us leave for work and it will be the same upon our return home. For many people, this continuous lapse in daylight for months on end will start to affect [...]
Read more →People often think that forgiveness is about letting another person off the hook. This type of belief leads to a hesitancy in wanting to forgive because there is a feeling that the person who did the hurting needs to suffer for their deed. Therefore, people carry unforgiveness in their heart like a weapon of revenge, [...]
Read more →I’m convinced Bill’s* main delight in life was exasperating the staff at his retirement home. Out of sheer stubbornness, he rejected nearly everything that they said would be beneficial to him. He refused to wear his hearing aid, choosing instead to let his voice boom throughout the building all day—sometimes he talked so loudly that [...]
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