To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait for the spring of 1986. Christmas comes only once a year. But Halley’s Comet comes only once a lifetime – twice, if your parents blessed you with great timing and great genes. My 30-plus years of waiting would be worth it. Of all… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here You may not recognize Maxwell’s Equations. But just by booting up your computer and opening this email, you’re enjoying one of the many things they’ve made possible in this world. Between 1861 and 1862, about the time Abraham Lincoln was getting settled into the White House, the Scottish physicist and mathematician… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The US Post Office officially launched its Parcel Post service on January 1, 1913. All of a sudden, citizens could mail larger and heavier items than just love letters and Christmas cards. A few imaginative folks immediately realized they had a brand new way to send bricks, books, or a dozen… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Everyone assumed it would be the most lopsided war in history. Professional soldiers, armed with machine guns, set out to destroy thousands of flightless birds. But things didn’t go quite as smoothly as everyone imagined. In November 1932, wheat farmers in the Campion district of Western Australia realized they had a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here Religious pat answers simply won’t do. The questions are edgy and demanding: Where was God when the waters of the Guadalupe River were rising more than 30 feet in a span of 90 minutes early last Friday morning? If God is really there, how can he bear the loss of more… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here It’s all about the eyes. According to their brilliant creator Jim Henson, what always “made” a particular Muppet were the size, shape, and placement of its eyes. That’s why Henson insisted on personally applying them to every one of his furry puppet creations. When the eyes were just right, a… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The most famous story associated with the Liberty Bell is heart-touching. The elderly bell ringer in Philadelphia’s Independence Hall had lost faith in the Founding Fathers. Would anything come of this dream called America? But on July 4, 1776, his grandson – having heard the news of the approval of the Declaration… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here As a naturalist, Charles Darwin wasn’t much of a “bird guy.” His real fascination was with barnacles. He spent eight years of his life, in fact, painstakingly dissecting smelly samples from all over the world, piling up storage crates in his London study in the pre-refrigeration era. His hope was to… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here There are a thousand stories behind every family picture. The three men standing in front of this seascape were all participants in the McDonald clan’s visit to the Galapagos Islands last week. They include my brothers Scott and Bruce, who were accompanied by their wives Gina and Ruth, respectively. My wife… Read more »
To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast, click here The British sailors who began to make regular visits to the Galapagos Islands in the 18th and 19th centuries didn’t know what to make of the giant tortoises they found there. Aside from a few remote islands in the Seychelles in the Indian Ocean, they existed nowhere else on the planet…. Read more »