The Power of Us Sometimes I think that if I could change the world,and run everything the way I want, then the world would be a better place. I'm a good guy. I have good intentions.I want the best for everyone; so it sounds like a good plan, right?Wh...
Criteria of Excellency My l4-year-old son, John, and I spotted the coat simultaneously. It was hanging on a rack at a secondhand clothing store in Northampton Mass, crammed in with shoddy trench coats and an assortment of sad, woolen overcoatsa rose...
Deciding to Live I believe I am a climber. Three years ago, a series of medical and personal crises took what was a clinical depression and made it something much darker. I thought of it as fallingas jumping off a bridge on a rainy winter day: three...
Getting What You Want in Life There are lives that have bread in abundance and yet are starved; with barns and warehouses filled, with shelves and larders laden they are empty and hungry. No man need envy them; their feverish, restless whirl in the d...
A Truth of Life One of my patients, a successful businessman, tells me that before his cancer he would become depressed unless things went a certain way. Happiness was having the cookie. If you had the cookie, things were good. If you didn't have the...
Storms Always Give Way to the Sun What is the secret ingredient of tough people that enables them to succeed? Why do they survive the tough times when others are overcome by them? Why do they win when other sink? The answer is very simple. It's all i...
Entering the New Room of Your Life It must be one of the most frequently asked questions in the English languageWhat do you want to be when you grow up? And for most of us the answer is simpleI don't know. And that's just fine. For teenagers all over...
Dancing All the Dances As Long As I Can I believe in dancing. I believe it is in my nature to dance by virtue of the beat of my heart, the pulse of my blood and the music in my mind. So I dance daily. The seldom-used dining room of my house is now an...
How I've Been Enriched by Beggars Outside our hotel in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, a seemingly ancient woman on crutches waited beside the door with her hand outstretched. Every day I put my hand in hers as our eyes met. She never failed to return my...
The Paradox of Happiness Do you recall a timelet's say when you were about 5 years oldwhat defined happiness back then? Was it getting a puppy for Christmas? Or maybe, you were a child of divorce, and all you wanted was for Mom and Dad to get back to...
Failure is a Good Thing Last week, my grand-daughter started kindergarten, and I wished her success. I was lying. What I actually wish for her is failure. I believe in the power of failure. Success is boring. Success is proving that you can do someth...
Free Up Time to Do What You Love Most Two years ago Shirley Michels of St. Louis found herself getting up earlier and earlier, and going to bed later and later, just to meet everyday demands. The wife, mother and ophthalmic technician met her respons...
Price of a Miracle Tess was a precocious eight-year-old girl when she heard her Mom and Dad talking about her little brother, Andrew. All she knew was that he was very sick and they were completely out of money. They were moving to an apartment compl...
Shelly to Elizabeth Hitchener Your letter of the 1st hath this moment reached me. I answer it according to our agreement, which shall be inviolable. Truly did you say that, at our arising in the morning, nature assumes a different aspect. Who could h...
Yellow Post-Its Can you still find this day, my dear, among your possessions? Among the souvenirs of your trips to faraway lands, the textbooks from those halcyon days when you walked the hallowed portals of that engineering college, the cassettes wh...