How much would you risk for a majestic worship experience? In northern Ethiopia, one pastor has been risking his life every day for more than 50 years to climb a sheer rock face barefoot in order to welcome his congregation in a rock-hewn 5th-century chapel sculpted out of the face of a cliff.
Read MoreImagine sitting in an empty room with an elephant, a golden retriever, and a rattlesnake. While you might perceive the sight, sounds, and smells of the room, the other creatures would gauge the experience in remarkably different ways: the elephant would emit low-frequency rumbles that a human ear cannot hear, the snake would sense the body heat of the animals around it, and the retriever would smell the lunch you ate three hours prior.
Read MoreHildegard of Bingen first witnessed what she called "The Shade of the Living Light" at age three. By the age of five, she was experiencing visions of God regularly through her five senses: sight, sound, smell, touch, taste. Recognized as the founder of scientific natural history in Germany and a saint in the Catholic church, Hildegard wrote one of the largest bodies of letters to survive the Middle Ages, and her wisdom reverberates notably in our 21st-century challenges.
Read MoreIf it seems a little sus to you that the dictionary keeps shifting in a janky way, you're not alone -- although it may be time to level up. Many of us were raised believing that the English dictionary is an immutable resource, but that's simply not true. Our language is growing and changing year by year, and Merriam-Webster just announced that they have added 370 new words to the dictionary -- including sus, janky, and level up.
Read MoreIn the book Humanocracy, authors Gary Hamel and Michele Zanini argue that our organizations are structured around a hierarchy that begins at a foundational level of "obedience" and extends upward towards the highest level of "daring" -- with each new tier dependent on how well the people within the organization are treated:
Read MoreIn an article published last week in Current Biology, Japanese researchers reported a connection between positive emotions and dog tears. The study is the first to examine the relationship between animal emotions and tear volume, and Takefumi Kikusui, a professor at Azabu University in Sagamihara, Japan, said he was inspired after watching his standard poodle grow teary-eyed as she nursed her puppies.
Read MoreMove over, Salt & Straw: Tapiwa Guzha is a Zimbabwean molecular biologist whose Tapi Tapi ice cream store in Cape Town, South Africa, has been getting a lot of attention since he opened in October 2020. Combining his West African heritage with a scientist's fascination with flavor, Guzha's flavors are as unique as they come:
Read MoreWhat are the familiar smells that launch you to another time and place? The warm scent of apple pie or homemade banana bread? A flowery perfume or a dusky cologne? The salty sea air or the acrid scent of hot asphalt? A pine-scented cleaner or the diesel of a school bus?
Read MoreAs you move through these final days of summer, ponder these words from American poet Walt Whitman:
Poem of Perfect Miracles (first published in Leaves of Grass, 1856)
Read MoreAccording to the Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw, mental agility is a critical component of a society that is moving forward: "Progress is impossible without change; and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything," Shaw wrote. While many of us like to think that we are open to new ideas, psychologists and researchers have found the opposite is true. ... Thank goodness we have the Holy Spirit to guide us forward!
Read MoreFor 10-year-old Valeria Yezhova, the war in her hometown is no reason to hide at home in despair. Instead Valeria sits at a folding table near the sliding glass doors of a Kyiv shopping center with two camping chairs, a checkerboard, an empty shoebox, and a sign that reads, "We are helping the Ukranian army."
Read MoreIf the images released this week from NASA's Webb Telescope are giving you pause, take note. For many, these majestic images of thousands of galaxies clustered in a mere grain of sand are confirmation that our life on Earth is a mere speck in a much larger reality. For others, the images can be unmooring, making them question their faith, their place, and their purpose. (For a glimpse at the initial images, look here: https://webbtelescope.org/)
Read MoreIn the 2015 book The Emotional Intelligence of Jesus, authors Roy M. Oswald and Arland Jacobson write that "emotional intelligence" is "the ability to control one's emotions -- not to put a damper on them, but be able to use emotions constructively to achieve desired goals and to form strong, positive relationships" -- and Jesus is the exemplar. We are often trained in what we need to know and what we need to do, but it is equally important that we recognize who we are in order to positively impact those around us, the authors argue.
Read MoreIn Stockholm, Sweden, boating is a way of life. With 14 islands connected by 57 bridges, passenger ferries and personal boats are as common as TriMet, MAX, and bicycles in the Portland Metropolitan area. And while a tapestry of waterways may sound idyllic, some 756,000 leisure boats are taking their toll on the environment.
Read MoreIn his posthumous novel Juneteenth, American writer Ralph Ellison penned this poignant exchange between two pastors at twin lecterns, speaking to those gathered at the beginning of a week-long Juneteenth celebration:
Read MoreWhen Keniche Horie was 23 years old, he sailed from Nishinomiya, Japan, to San Francisco, California, on a 19-foot plywood boat dubbed "The Mermaid" and became the first person in history to successfully make a nonstop journey across the Pacific Ocean. The year was 1962, and Horie was a sensation when he sailed under San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge after 94 days at sea surviving on rice and canned beans. Sixty years later, Horie has done it again: This past Saturday, June 4, Horie set a record at age 83 as the oldest solo yachtsman to sail nonstop across the Pacific Ocean.
Read MoreWhen Vietnam closed its borders to international visitors during the height of the pandemic, tourism authorities in northwestern Vietnam began dreaming of a pathway that would wow the world, fueling tourism and offering visitors a glimpse of serenity in the midst of global chaos. The resulting glass-bottomed Bach Long bridge was unveiled to much fanfare in April, and this week Guinness World Records declared it the world's longest bridge of its kind.
Read MoreAcademics and social scientists have studied happiness for generations, seeking just the right dollar amount where happiness is assured and we can expect to live happily ever after. But the solution eludes them, of course, because the answer does not lie in a simple formula.
Read MoreMaya Angelou was an American writer and social activist best known for her 1969 memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings and her poem "On the Pulse of Morning," which she read at President Bill Clinton's inaugural ceremony in January 1993. Angelou was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1928, and raised by her grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. She had a difficult childhood as she and her brother, Bailey, traveled between their parents' homes and endured egregious racism. At the age of seven, Angelou was raped by her mother's boyfriend. To avenge the horrible crime, Angelou's uncles killed her mother's boyfriend, and Angelou retreated into silence. Deeply scarred by the trauma, she did not speak for many years.
Read MoreRobert Morgan wasn't even supposed to be at work yesterday. He had agreed to trade shifts with a coworker, and he was outside the Palm Beach International Airport control tower reading a book on his break when the call came in: A passenger in a Cessna Grand Caravan single-engine airplane reported that his pilot was incapacitated and he was attempting to land the plane -- with no flying experience at all.
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