A few days ago, I heard a news item that really caught my attention. It was about Team Rubicon – and maybe you’ve heard about them, but their mission was new to me. And while the news story was heart-warming, it had a very sad beginning: the wide-swipe of a killer tornado. But what is so up-lifting is the “silver-lining” role Team Rubicon is playing in the wake of nature’s funnel-monster roar. Team Rubicon is all about returning soldiers. They’ve been to war, often watching their buddies die, they’re even been injured themselves, yet they’ve made it out. And they…

I am so moved. 14-year-old Hannah Salwen has convinced her parents to sell their house and give half of the profit to charity. I don’t want to spoil the story, but I’ll tell you that they embarked on a journey that transported them across the globe and tested their comfort zone. See what you think. Here’s a very short, compelling video about it. And then on Sunday Morning, this past weekend, there was a segment about this family and a follow-up conversation with two experts who talked about the idea of giving in general. One said, “Give till it hurts”…

Just last weekend I came across a news release: “Pope Benedict XVI has a new commandment for priests struggling to get their message across: Go forth and blog.” At first I was surprised, but then I thought: Why not? They have a message. And so do you. One of the most effective ways of influencing a community is by writing a regular, or even irregular blog. It’s easier and less time-consuming than you’d think. And it’s something that every practitioner should consider doing. I’d thought about writing one for years before getting started last year. What stopped me? Well, fear….

Why is this earthquake hitting me so hard? Not a victim myself and with no family or personal connection to someone living in Haiti, I’m really just a bystander. Yet wham…those scenes of utter rubble and a thoroughly collapsed life just freeze me in my tracks. Without being there, we can barely fathom its magnitude, its devastation, and its trauma. And even if we could, our senses are protected as we watch from a distance those first hours of search and rescue…the lifting out of broken bodies and the bearing witness to the hardly surviving and crushed. Photo: Roosewelt Pinheiro/Abr…