The sannyasi (a Hindu holy man) had reached the outskirts of the village and settled down under a tree for the night when a villager came running up to him and said, "The stone! The stone! Give me the precious stone!" "What stone?" asked the sannyasi. "Last night the Lord Shiva appeared to…
Ryoken, a Zen master, lived the simplest kind of life in a little hut at the foot of a mountain. One evening a thief visited the hut, only to discover there was nothing in it to steal. Ryoken returned and caught him in the act.…
In 1921, at age 39, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was a rising star in the political world. Vacationing on remote Campobello Island, in Canada, he awoke one morning without feeling in his legs. Over the next few nerve-racking days, his condition worsened, was misunderstood and misdiagnosed. Almost one…
Kathleen Norris writes about her niece (in her book Acedia and Me). When her niece was three, Kathleen's brother would drive her to day care in the morning, and her mother, who worked as a stock-broker and financial planner, would pick her up in the afternoon. She always brought an orange, peeled so that…
As Alexander the Great was passing through Corinth, he sought out the famous philosopher Diogenes, and found him sitting under a tree, dressed in rags, with not a drachma to his name. When the most powerful man in the world…
A famous travel writer, visiting Japan, was invited to dine in the home of a well-to-do Japanese Family. Delighted to entertain a well-known visitor, the host invited a number of guests, letting everyone know that this meal would be special one-of-a-kind; because…
By most measures, he was nondescript: a youngish white man in blue jeans, a long-sleeved T-shirt and a Washington Nationals baseball cap. From a small case, he removed a violin. Placing the open case at his feet, he shrewdly threw in a few dollars and pocket change as…
A mother begins her weekend breakfast routine, pulling ingredients from the refrigerator. Omelets on the family menu this morning. Before she knows it, her two-year-old daughter has climbed a chair and is now sitting on the kitchen counter. "Momma, can…
The middle drawer of her mother's dresser was filled with silk stockings, dozens of pairs in many exquisite colors, each wrapped in the store's original package. They had never been worn. Rachel admired the stockings, imagining the texture and enjoying the array of…
"It's been a rough day," she tells me, "and I'm not in a good place. And, none of my 'tools' are working." Rough days we all know. All too well. But the non-functioning or insufficient "tool-kit"… that's never fun. (Tools = the…
