Phew. What a relief—at 24, I finally had it all figured out. I mean, how difficult could this whole religion and God thing be? Well, it turns out that I had a lot more to ...

I was sentenced to an alarm clock and cold cereal on my first day of kindergarten. I dressed myself, rode my bike to summer activities, and took the yellow bus to school ...

Tori Amos' new CD, Scarlet's Walk, may strike some as pretentious and overblown. It's a "sonic novel," complete with detailed maps and an interactive website , that follows the fictional Scarlet ...

Remember the days before "super size"? Remember when the smallest size coffee you could order was—you won't believe this—a "small"? When was the last time you ate ...

Birth, like death, is inconvenient. It happens at odd times—in the middle of the night or in the ghastly, wee hours of the morning. Sometimes it's protracted over seemingly interminable periods of time, disrupting and ...

Every time I attend a burial, the weather's not good. Rain, cold, mud; the universe seems to provide a climate in tune with the mood of those gathered around the grave. The rain returned this week ...

Winter in Ontario and I couldn't touch my toes. I was plopped on the kitchen floor, legs spread in a 'V' and hands stretched towards my feet. ...

What is a good deed? What's the point of trying to be good in a world that's clearly a mess? And how do you even begin to do that? These ...

Pride pulsated through my veins, turning me into a third-grader with Attention Deficit Disorder as I anticipated the inauguration of the Casa Acogida ("Hospitality House"). The house is a project that was four years ...

Oatmeal is not a favorite food of two-year-olds. Mine wasn't too thrilled to see it arrive on the breakfast table this morning. He ate grudgingly, intermittent spoonfuls hitting the table and floor. I cajoled it ...