Author Archives: Morning Reflections

The Master of Our Fates

      Comments Off on The Master of Our Fates

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Invictus is one of history’s most enduring expressions of self-reliance. It came from the pen of William Ernest Henley (1849-1903), a highly regarded poet and literary critic during Britain’s Victorian Era. From the age of 12, Henley had battled tuberculosis in the bone of his left leg. At age 20 it had… Read more »

A Trustworthy Voice

      Comments Off on A Trustworthy Voice

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here “I will tell you my secret: I have doubts.” Those are the opening words of John Ortberg’s 2008 book Faith and Doubt. As a general rule, we applaud individuals for such transparency. A confession of doubt these days is regarded as a sign of authenticity. Of course, we don’t really want… Read more »

Life’s Greatest Adventure

      Comments Off on Life’s Greatest Adventure

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here In his role as a feature writer for an outdoor magazine, Mark Adams writes about great adventures. Until a decade ago, however, he had never experienced one firsthand. All that changed when Adams hired a mountain guide and decided he would retrace the steps of the celebrated explorer Hiram Bingham (the… Read more »

A Dandy Assignment

      Comments Off on A Dandy Assignment

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Dandelion season is once again upon us. There’s a lot to love about these ubiquitous “weeds,” which grow in abundance on every continent, including Antarctica. They’re beautiful. Their very name (from dent de lion, French for “lion’s tooth,” a description of their jagged green leaves), generates smiles. They can even be… Read more »

Through the Fire

      Comments Off on Through the Fire

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There’s a long-standing superstition in Indy Car racing that green cars are bad luck. Mel Kenyon, a 32-year-old rookie in 1965, was sponsored by Sprite. That meant his sleek racer would bear the soft drink’s lemon-lime hue. Kenyon failed to qualify for his first Indy “500” that year. But the brilliant dirt track… Read more »

If Only

      Comments Off on If Only

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Beware a pair of words that have the power to steal your life: If only.  Relationship expert Les Parrott asserts, “Once you begin a sentence with if only, you have sealed the deal with regret.”  If only I had saved a few dollars every week, the way everyone told me, I would… Read more »

The Good Gift of Life

      Comments Off on The Good Gift of Life

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It appears that something monumental happened in 2023. Demographers will need to crunch a lot of numbers over the next few years just to be sure. For now, there are compelling reasons to believe that two years ago, for presumably the first time in history, the global fertility rate slumped below… Read more »

That Sound You Hear

      Comments Off on That Sound You Hear

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Twenty years ago, 53-year-old Eugene O’Kelly was chairman and CEO of KPMG, one of America’s largest accounting firms. He lived life at breakneck speed.  He and his family rarely went on vacation together. He missed virtually every school function of his seventh-grade daughter.  But the O’Kellys would have all the time together… Read more »

One Job

      Comments Off on One Job

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here You had one job. The internet teems with examples of work projects that fell just a tad short of perfection: misspelled words, mislabeled products, toilets installed upside-down, and highway direction signs that appear to beckon drivers into walls or over a precipice.  You had just one thing to do. And if you mess… Read more »

True Treasure

      Comments Off on True Treasure

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Beirut, Lebanon, was once considered one of the most beautiful cities in the world.  It was known as the Paris of the Middle East. All that changed during the Lebanese civil war of the 1970s. Beirut was devastated. Citizens fled the city as fast as they could. Sami was a Lebanese Christian who,… Read more »