“What’s the least I can give?” I was dumbfounded and impressed that he actually had the guts to ask this out loud. But it’s probably crossed everyone’s mind at least once right? Even for a second while making the budget and paying bills? I’d never say so… But I’m not… Read More
I’ve been experimenting on myself for a few months now. Every day I set out to give just one thing. undivided attention to a stranger an unusually large and undeserved tip quarters stacked on a candy machine at the grocery store Admittedly, some days the gifts felt small and unappreciated,… Read More
This is a tale of two zipcodes–and the relationship between how much we have and how much we give. Spindale & Arlington Spindale is a rural community in North Carolina speckled with mobile homes and blanketed in kudzu. Arlington, Virginia’s miles of exclusive neighborhoods, shopping centers, and office complexes neighbor… Read More
Dad’s can turn garbage into a soccer ball. Dirt into breakfast, lunch and dinner. And boys and girls into men and women. Richard is Colline’s uncle, but every bit her dad (I wrote yesterday about how she went from slave to daughter.) He wakes her early for chores because “this… Read More
“Just do something,” she said to the crowd of young people. Sitting in the crowd, I prayed for self-control – enough to keep me from standing and shouting, “No!” Some somethings are inefficient. Others are ineffective. Some are even destructive. Please don’t just do something. “Just do something” sounds wonderful… Read More
If I close my eyes I can see her. After cutting the crust from his sandwich she snaps his lunchbox shut, slips it into his backpack and heads upstairs to wake him for school. She’s the nanny. But she’s more than that to the boy. Dad expresses love in sixty-hour… Read More
Shaun Groves