The Power of Presence

Alone in the woods! Darkness enveloped me, in spite of the camp fire. Escalating fear gripped my heart as unfamiliar noises rose from unseen places. As a young boy participating in an initiation rite at a YMCA camp, I was petrified. My assignment – to stay awake...

Would you walk with me?

Walkers are filling parks and roadsides, especially as the weather cools. Today, the medical community strongly endorses walking for good health. In fact, reports from the US Department of Health and the British Heart Foundation reveal that walking can: Reduce the...

Humble Kindness

Kindness from a stranger is a delightful surprise. While shopping with a friend visiting from Hungary, we experienced kindness first hand. After searching to no avail for a particular item, a young clerk offered his assistance. After several telephone calls, he...

Who gets the credit?

"I did all the work; they got all the credit." These, in essence, were the words recently spoken by a friend. He had crafted a project only to have others take it over and claim the praise. I suppose each of us can identify with him, on some level, whether...

The Church — a Building?

While visiting a Hungarian pastor in Budapest, he offered to give me a tour of his Lutheran church. The man spoke with grateful remembrance of the building's construction, as it had been built solely by the church members when 2,000 people attended in the early...

Encouragement

My daughter and I were running the 5K community race for "Old Home Days" in Hancock, NH (a place my wife's family gathers for family reunions). My shirt was wet with perspiration and I was "feeling my age". As we were slowly finishing the race,...