Did you ever hear the saying, “Everything happens for a reason”? When I hear this statement, depending on the “thing that happened”, I find myself either nodding in agreement or shaking my head in irritation. How can I have such opposite reactions to one statement? Do I really believe that things happen for a reason? When something really good happens – meeting a new friend, getting a new job, receiving an unexpected financial blessing – it is easy to say that it has happened for a reason. On the other hand, when I think of some of the painful and difficult things that happen in life –...

As I look out my window on this fine spring morning, I see green everywhere. I can hear a few dozen birds singing. And there is a gentle rain falling. At times like this, when I can see the change of the seasons happening right before my eyes, it always seems to put me in mind of the cycles of life. For all life seems to move in cycles of rebirth, growth, retreat, and dormancy. This ‘spring’ part of the cycle is a time of great beginnings. Everywhere we look, new life is emerging with joy and abandon. I see it in myself as I seem to come out of my winter sluggishness with renewed energy and zest...