Today You, Tomorrow, Me
"In 2010, Justin Horner was driving down a busy freeway in Portland, Ore., when his tire blew out. He pulled over to the side of the road and made a sign that said he needed help. Three hours later, a van finally pulled up. Out came a family of four. They were Latino, and their young daughter acted as translator between her parents' Spanish and Horner's English, so that they could work together to... posted on Feb 04 2024, 2,675 reads

The Great-Grandmother Who Goes To Primary School
Salima Khan, a 92-year-old great-grandmother affectionately known as Amma, is challenging stereotypes one letter at a time at the Chawli primary school in Bulandshahr, Northern India. Despite struggles with walking and cataracts, she has become a beacon of hope in an area where about 30% of women are illiterate, inspiring women of all ages to enroll in school. "The teacher taught me everything." s... posted on Jan 19 2024, 1,630 reads

Life's Present: Visits with my Mother and Dementia
In a touching reflection, Jackie Bailey shares heartwarming and intimate details about caring for her elderly mother, whose demeanor has softened with age and dementia. She muses, "It's not that mum has simply forgotten all her old beefs. Getting older is making her brain kinder." Citing studies on neuroimaging and the release of oxytocin, she asserts, "older people are kinder than the rest of us.... posted on Jan 03 2024, 2,189 reads

Animal Shelter Celebrates After All Pets Adopted For First Time
Christmas came early at the Adams County SPCA in Pennsylvania, U.S. where "a true miracle" led to the shelter being completely pet-free for the first time in nearly 50 years! Typically buzzing with barks and meows, the shelter shared news of the emptiness, which was attributed to successful adoptions and pets being restored to their families. Imagine the joy in the faces of the staff and volunteer... posted on Dec 28 2023, 1,089 reads

Why I Learned to Knit Christmas Stockings
Embarking on a heartwarming journey of love and connection, Madeline Holcombe decided the best way to feel closer to her late grandmother was to pick up her knitting needles. Using her grandmother's pattern, Madeline set out to craft the same personalized Christmas stockings that Grandma Mimi began diligently knitting for her family in the 1960s. Through this repetitive labor of love, Madeline fou... posted on Dec 25 2023, 1,504 reads

The Bridge We Were Meant To Cross
"My brother and I were driving home together and became engrossed in a conversation. Because of this distraction, my brother took a wrong turn. Unfortunately, the wrong turn took us towards a bridge and we had no way to turn back. Grudgingly, my brother paid the bridge toll and drove on. He was clearly frustrated by the mistake and the needless waste of $4. We eventually reached an exit slip-way a... posted on Dec 21 2023, 3,705 reads

A Father, a Son, a Run, and Little Friend.
It was a bright Sunday morning in late September. Thomas Lake was waiting for his 11-year-old son at the finish line of a 5K race they both were running. Panic began to set in, as Lake knew his son could run the 5K in 30 minutes, and the clock was ticking towards 40 minutes. An hour earlier, father-and-son were driving when the 11-year-old noticed a fingernail-long neon green tree cricket on the h... posted on Dec 20 2023, 1,758 reads

Hundreds of Strangers Send Gifts to Make Teens' Wishes Come True
"Excuse me while I break down," Cheri Guy's TikTok video began. Wiping away tears, the Las Vegas high school teacher shared a heart-tugging "Wishmas" list to which 950 students contributed wishes for simple items, such as a bag of chips "so I won't feel hungry," a gift card to help a parent with groceries, "slippers to protect me from the cold," and a physics book for an aspiring astrophysicist. M... posted on Dec 13 2023, 1,415 reads

Lessons from Living in Nature
Nisha Srinivasan and her husband Ragu Padmanabhan had Silicon Valley careers, when in 2008, soon after having their son Aum, they promptly sold everything and moved to rural India. They wanted to farm, but had no experience in it and so set out as students of the land -- for instance, when they planted 9000 trees on their barren land, thousands didn't make it, but thousands blossomed into a mini-f... posted on Sep 22 2016, 25,634 reads

Mr. Wright's Law of Love
No one falls asleep in Jeffrey Wright's high school physics class. Exploding pumpkins, hovercrafts and an experiment involving a bed of nails, a cinder block and a sledgehammer, are some of the crazy stunts that keep the students enthralled. But it is Mr. Wright's experiences as a father of a special needs son, and his teachings about love, family, and the meaning of life that leave the deepest im... posted on Dec 01 2014, 12,075 reads