Once, at a conference, I noticed a man striding toward me, his face alight (Marc Ian Barasch tells the story in his fine book, Field Notes on the Compassionate Life). He seemed really happy to see me, but I didn’t have a clue who he was. When he got closer, he pushed his glasses up [...]
Once upon a time, there was a boy who didn’t like himself very much. It was not his fault. He was born with cerebral palsy. Cerebral palsy is something that happens to the brain. It means that you can think but sometimes can’t walk, or even talk. This boy had a very bad case of [...]
The husband knew he could not adequately care for his wife, now in the final stages of Alzheimer’s. He found a compassionate facility, and visited her every day. At noon for lunch. Not 11:59. Not 12:01. Noon. Every day. Until the day of a minor accident when he found himself in an Emergency Room, his [...]
Each of us desires relationships that are healthy–with trust, compassion, laughter, honesty and touch. There’s only one problem… Each of us moves away from the very things we desire. If only we could find that one person who could make it all okay… Here’s the deal: Intimacy has little to do with the other person. [...]
A synagogue needed help. They were in dire straights, and morale was low. They called a famous Rabbi to help them sort it out, to offer them insights and give them all the answers to the questions they were asking. On the evening the Rabbi visited the shul, every pew was full, the congregation rapt, [...]
Mother Pollard was one of the elders of Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Alabama, during the bus boycott of 1955-56. When her pastor the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., suggested she go back to the buses because she was too old to keep walking, she told him, “I’m gonna walk just as long [...]
