Putting Your Life Story to Work
A tribute to Dr. Robert N. Butler:Â He championed the elderly and showed how they use distant memories to make sense of their lives as they approach death. Among the questions the author had intended to...
View ArticleA Life Story in Film
At an important juncture in his life and career, filmmaker Richard Levine created a hauntingly lyrical video that helped him address a piece of his unfinished emotional business. There are many ways to...
View ArticleBuilding a Legacy: A Man Named Chatza
The Russian novelist Turgenev once said that "Every man should write the story of his life." A corollary might be "Every man (and woman, of course) should write the story of his or her family."read more
View ArticleBuilding a Legacy: A Man Named Teddy
All of us have a Teddy Kaplan in our family's history, a person who survived great odds and lived with quiet, awe-inspiring dignity. It is our obligation to future generations to tell their stories...
View Article"I feel like I just won the lottery."
She thought that a thousand dollars was the least she could offer to repay an old debt. Would her husband agree? A real-life story from a reader who discovered the saving grace of kindness.read more
View ArticleWindows Into Our Psyche?
They've been called "psychic tableaux"and "frozen dreams." The author reflects on four family pictures his father took 50 years ago. Then he wonders: "Will today's digital family pictures yield as many...
View ArticleFrom Chennai to Chicago, Tough Times Taught Her to Be Kind
Meet Uma Girish, 46, the first reader nominated to become a member of the My Unfinished Business Hall of Fame. Her goal is to help seniors reconcile with friends and relatives and "make peace with...
View ArticleWhere in the World Was Lee?
Is there a part of yourself that you've neglected over the years? Is there a passion you once had that could add a dimension now to your life? Â The author invites you to take part in a contest that...
View ArticleIsn't Life Curious?
Only one reader offered the correct answer to the author's "photo riddle." Is it possible that their paths once crossed?read more
View ArticleThe Music Man
The inspiring story of how a father created a legacy with his grandfather's fiddle and passed a baton to his son so that his son could fulfill his dreams.read more
View ArticleA Book Club with a Mission
UNFINISHED BUSINESS, my book about closing circles and making amends, was just named the first-ever selection of a new global book club. Sean Penn's J/P HRO Haitian Relief Organization will be 1 World...
View ArticleThe Greatest Gift of All
By writing down your life story, you create a legacy for your children and grandchildren. As they embark on their own journeys of self-discovery, you and your story will help guide their way.read more
View ArticleTake the 30-Day Unfinished Business Challenge
Tackling your unfinished emotional business -- even just one item of it -- can transform your life. The author offers the strategies that worked best for him.read more
View ArticleA Place for Me to Visit Her
His beloved aunt's death reminds the author how certain places exert a primal pull: They keep drawing us back, to refresh our faith in both humanity and ourselves. read more
View ArticleKind Hearts and Kindred Spirits
His story is as American as they come -- and so is his rugged individualism and his love of our nation's wide open spaces. What makes him unique, though, is the legacy he's leaving future generations...
View ArticleTo Go or Not to Go: Is Your School Reunion Worth the Worry?
They are fraught with concerns over how we look, who we've married, what we have or haven't achieved over the years and hurts real and imagined. But, according to the author, there are at least two...
View ArticleHard-wired for Compassion
As PASSAGES author Gail Sheehy writes in the new foreword to my book, the instinct to care for the vulnerable is "rooted deep in the mammalian brain."read more
View ArticleIn Their Own Words: Five Stories of Healing and Forgiveness
How do you heal old wounds? It often begins with a sudden realization, or a bold first step. Five readers reveal the rewards of reaching out and making amends.read more
View ArticleHow I Learned That My Father Loved Me
The author resisted his father's coaching, in baseball and in life. What changed?read more
View ArticleAre You Happy, Daddy?
How would the daddy in your kids' life answer the same important question this Father's Day? read more
View ArticleOne Young Man's Father's Day Epiphany
The thought of hearing about his son's first touchdown over the phone provokes a new dad to rethink his priorities. What would you do?read more
View ArticleFacebook vs. Face to Face: Why School Reunions Will Endure
There's evidence that, particularly among younger alumni, Facebook is hurting attendance at high school and college reunions. After attending his 40th, the author explains why Facebook is a poor...
View ArticleHow to Write a Moving and Authentic Memoir
A writer of spiritual memoirs reflects on why so many political memoirs fall flat, especially in this season of testing the waters before running for President in 2016.read more
View ArticleWhy Soccer Will Never Replace Baseball in America's Psyche
Two riddles and a personal reflection why baseball will always loom larger than soccer in the heart and the psychology of the American male.read more
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