Remember the story of The Wizard of Oz? Four characters—the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, the Cowardly Lion, and of course Dorothy—are in search of what they believe will make them complete.

Weeds is the name of a movie from the mid-1980s about a San Quentin prisoner, played by Nick Nolte, facing a life sentence without parole. After trying to kill himself several times, he resigns himself to his fate and checks a book out of the prison library to pass the time. 

In the film Il Postino, a humble postman on an Italian island discovers that the famous Chilean poet, Pablo Neruda, is spending time there. The postman contrives to become the poet’s personal mailman just to be near him and to learn how to make poems that will help win his beloved’s heart.

Winters can be tough in northern climates; they can wear a lot of us down. Shut in. Stalled cars. Slippery and dangerous falls. Week after week from Thanksgiving to Easter winter seems to linger. Scarves cover faces, eyes are cast down. We share little or no contact with each other as we hurry through the elements.

If you're a farmer or gardener and you checked to see if the corn you planted at winter’s end was at least “knee-high by the 4th of July,” it will surely be ready for your table by next month.

When Jesus speaks of things that are "hidden from those who are wise," he may have been referring to the fact that we often jump to conclusions based on what we think is happening, without really knowing at all—especially in an unsettling situation.

When Kimani Ng'ang'a Maruge showed up on the first day of class at a remote primary school in Kenya's Rift Valley, he found himself among hundreds of children jostling for admission. What made him different was that he was 84-years-old.

We were all having a fun time in Washington, D.C. We picked and chose which of the monuments and memorials we wanted to see again. We ate at restaurants suggested by friends free of tourists.

Back in grammar school, when Sister Jerome was teaching us about the Hebrew prophets, I thought of my next-door neighbor Max Goldstein. The description of the prophets sounded just like Max.

My daughter had a difficult time with transitions in her teens. Chalk it up to Down syndrome, obsessive-compulsiveness, or just being a teenager.