I recently read about a man who, at 53, believed he had lost almost everything in his life. John Kralik was 40 pounds overweight and his two marriages had ended in painful divorces. His law firm was on the brink of bankruptcy. He slept on an air mattress in a...

For me, it doesn't get much more devastating than this. A U.S. district judge who came by to say hello to his friend and fellow politician. A child who, having just been voted to student council, stood in line to meet the public figure she idolized. A beloved congresswoman reaching...

I still remember the sight of the man: His shoes were made of paper, and his hair and face were matted with dirt. He was slumped against a wall, his legs splayed out onto the parking lot, his eyes two lifeless balls. Why is that man sitting there? I silently...

This past Halloween I watched as a parade of fairies, princesses, kitty cats and iCarly-lookalikes pranced by my front window. And then came my daughter. Dressed in camouflage fatigues and desert boots, a smudge of charcoal under each face, my girl looked every bit the soldier. But when she ran...

I knew Annette as a much-loved friend of dear friends. While we took to each other instantly, we lived several states apart. Our time together was often fleeting and I always felt as though there was so much more about her I wanted to know.

What I did know about...

"One touch of nature makes the whole world kin." -- Shakespeare

As a child growing up in the Colorado Rockies, my playground was the forest. Every morning on the way to school, I listened to a symphony of larks, catbirds and warblers. I chased after snowshoe rabbits and trotted on...

Who knew a simple home video could rock my world -- and rock it as badly as it did? That's what happened when I, the mother of a little girl, was watching family films: Flickering past me were images of my adorable daughter during our earliest years together. There she...

Every morning after I raise my 49-year-old body out of bed, I kiss my daughter's forehead and croon a little morning lullaby to coax her to start her day. I take her hands and sing, "Will You Dance with Me?" from the King & I. If I'm lucky, Grace will...

The other night, we were gathered around one tiny little candle on my life-partner Steve's birthday cake. We are three amigos -- Steve, my daughter Grace and I -- and we do everything as a family. So we blew out the candle together. Then we re-lit it and blew it...