How a big-city Jew made room for a small-town Cheesehead

When, as a small-town Wisconsin Cheesehead, I came to marry a fun-loving Jewish girl from the Bronx, her poetic “New Joisey” uncle toasted this union as the joining of the “Empire State and the State …

Wilderness Retreats Heal Family Relationships

Caryn Hirshleifer thought she had done her job by arranging wilderness therapy expeditions for her teenaged girls with Soltreks, based north of Duluth in Two Harbors, MN.
When filling out application forms and describing the family …

Who are Your Spiritual Pied Pipers

HOW SPUNKY COUSINS CHANGED MY LIFE

Energetic guitarist and songwriter Steven Curtis Chapman has a reputation for seeking and joyfully expressing the best that life has to offer. Maybe that’s why he confesses his surprise at …

Confident exec finds toughest job at home

A former Pillsbury executive, Barb Benetti had always been educated, capable and self-assured. But when “this little creature” — her first child — came along, she felt clueless and undone.
“I used to manage 20 people …

A Dog’s View of Suffering

Having been miraculously healed himself, John wondered whether God was being selective or just silent. Then one day, while playing with their dog Cosley, he saw an analogy which has helped them approach Nancy’s chronic …

Voice nearly gone, his life still speaks

After a lifetime of passionate public speaking, former Twin Cities priest Terry Dosh would rather lose an arm or a leg than his voice. Yet this is the prized tool being stripped from him through …

Two grandmas and a gangster

A former gang leader from Chicago’s Southside, Ardest said, “My heart was so hardened, I sat in jail and rolled marijuana joints with pages of a Bible. As a gangster, you can’t trust anyone. Metro …