The sign of a good leader is easy to recognize, though it is hardly ever seen. For the greatest leaders are those who share as equals in the trials and struggles, the demands and expectations,...

Have you noticed how children never bypass a puddle of water, but jump, splash, and slosh right through it? That’s because they know an important truth: Life was meant to be lived; puddles were meant...

There are still blue skies and rainbows and days bathed in sunlight. There are colorful shade trees filled with sweet bird songs. And there are wishing stars in the heavens as well as angels in...

Rain is a lullaby heard through a thick, isolating blanket of clouds. It is the tinkling harp of water droplets; a moist breath whistling through willow reeds; a pattering beat background to the mourner’s melody....

It’s a sweet thing to sit quietly in the early-morning darkness and talk to God for a while. It’s amazing what you gain from the conversation.

Forgiveness is a revolving door positioned in your path. You must step through it to move on, but it takes both timing and choice to escape walking circles inside.

Knowing the path to follow doesn’t make it a breeze to step along. If every desire were only a skip, hop, and a jump away, we’d all have arrived.

If only this great concern we have for our own sensitive feelings expanded to encompass the feelings of our fellow men.

Many people believe they have found the key to Heaven’s gate, not realizing that there is no key hole. It is a barrier upon which you must knock. And I believe that it is by...

A writer writes knowing that nothing else will elicit the same kind of satisfaction and personal triumph as molding the written word into a reader’s great experience.

Be good.See good.Choose good.It’s a no-brainer.

We are all guilty of sin, error, and moments of sheer stupidity; none of us should be casting stones. The occasional arced pebble might be overlooked.

When you begin to care too much about what everyone else says, your confidence shrinks and you start to feel like insignificant, little Jack in a strange land of intimidating giants. But when you come...

It’s silly to think the left eye would envy the right or that one foot would be jealous of the other, and yet so often it is the case.

Face it―nobody cares.But so what? Their apathy doesn’t diminish your worth. Learn from it. Make it your job to care for those around you so they can’t say the same thing.

The sun shines every day without being told that it is brilliant. The mountains stand tall and majestic though no one informs them of their grandeur. The winds twirl and dance with clouds, lacking cheers...

Sometimes it feels as if God set you on Earth with a bottle full of nasty-tasting pills called days and these instructions: Swallow one at a time. When entire prescription is finished, you may return...

I laugh for sheer medicinal purposes; because I feel I might die otherwise.

Frozen yogurt is tastier than ice cream, nobody is too old for cartoons, bald men are sexy, chocolate is the best medicine, BIG books are better, cats secretly rule the planet, and everything should be...

When I finally find that one willing agent, I’ll have found my prize in the Cracker Jack box.

When you open your mouth, listeners are offended. When you close your mouth, the expectant are offended. If a person seeks misdoing from you they will find it regardless of whether or not you deliver. 

It is said that you can’t write without a reader. The opposite holds true as well; you can’t read without a writer. But if as a single, creative person you are one in the same,...

There are many who don’t wish to sleep for fear of nightmares. Sadly, there are many who don’t wish to wake for the same fear.

The irony of life: Realizing a lifetime is barely long enough to figure out how it should have been lived.

A truly humble apology works to part storm clouds, calm rough seas, and bring on the soft lights of dawn; it has the power to change a person’s world.

I believe people are more inclined to do their best not when they feel loved, but when they feel loved regardless.

Though I love you to the core of my being, so thoroughly that every cell comprising me aches to be near you, I must accept that we can never be together. For our existence parallels...

Wanting help, I reached out to serve. Seeking happiness, I smiled and offered comfort. Yearning for love, I showed love. And now I understand. My life was never about me, it was always about you.

Life isn’t a lazy cruise on some endless, calm, and temperate sea. Life is a raging ocean with swells and tidal waves that wreck and sink your boat. Life is a series of storms―overcast skies,...

Kindness is a magical spell—performed by enlightened beings—meant to enchant hearts and lift weary souls that they might fly.

Every brush stroke on the canvas, every dab of color introduced, the fine textures impressed in the paint—this accumulation of many small acts combines to shape a final work of art. And so it is...

Just because a person successfully steers a voyage through hell doesn’t mean he ever wants to sail that route again.

To love her was to taste sweet surrender. For had she not entered his life, he would have sought the wonders of both Heaven and Earth. But she surpassed them all and, by her pleasing...

Be nice. Be good. Be happy. If people everywhere were to keep to this simple creed, there’d be few problems left in the world to fret about.

It is neither trials nor relationships nor successes nor failures that define a man, but the choices he makes while handling them.

You can add up your blessings or add up your troubles. Either way, you’ll find you have an abundance.

The power of a smile is such that even drawing a happy face on a piece of paper makes your lips turn up.

Rainbows paint the sky ‘til the sun melts their colors.Swinging in the wind, whiskered cattails purr.The pigs gallop by and snort at the moon,While frogs kiss the lizards and princesses too.”

Those things that challenge the worst in us tend to strengthen the best in us.

It’s a fact I’ve always known, just like my ancestors before me. Don’t you see? That’s what makes us who we are. That’s what makes life valuable, Pallador, knowing that each and every day we...

Laughter isn’t a sign of insanity but a shield against it.

A little porch light from a distant farmhouse dimmed, feeling alone and unneeded until his smallest spark of illumination snuffed out entirely. The night fell as dark as it was quiet. Meanwhile, every secret eye...

Life is just repeated attempts at trying to do better.

I’m not really Red Riding Hood. My name is Annabelle, but I’m pretending to be her because……well……because this is my dream and that’s what I wish to dream about.”Oh glorious day! He’d learned her name!...

Christmas is like candy; it slowly melts in your mouth sweetening every taste bud, making you wish it could last forever.

Life isn’t all grand, but it isn’t all miserable either. There’s both sweet and sour in every day. So why focus on the ugly when you can gaze at what’s beautiful? Concentrate on the good.

You may be the only person left who believes in you, but it’s enough. It takes just one star to pierce a universe of darkness. Never give up.

Raging fires grow from the tiniest spark; it is the same principle at work in life. As long as there’s a spark, tend to your fire. Never give up. 

Life is a book that someone else is reading—and you, a key character—hencethe need for continual conflict and resolution. We can’t have any boring books.

Some live for their own joy and pleasure. Some live to ease the burdens of others. Then there are those who seem to exist for pain’s sake only; that in the end the wrathful fire...