A few years back, I built an altar for Dia de Los Muertos to honor my parents. We have no Aztec or Spanish blood in our lineage, but I’ve always loved the tradition. Creating the altar was a labor of love that involved hauling a lot of stuff to the Sherman Heights Community Center, including candles and marigolds. But it was worth it to share Mom and Dad’s lives with others via … [Read more...]

An inspirational tale for the “ring of fire” solar eclipse! Composite image by April Elliott Kent. One cold day in 1936 a stray tabby cat crept inside St. Augustine’s Cathedral in London, seeking food and warmth. Several times she was cast out. But eventually she prevailed, and went on to win hearts as the beloved church cat. Called Faith for her determination, she sat in … [Read more...]

On a sweltering May afternoon in 2015, D’Arcy Downs-Vollbracht heard an unearthly scream. She ran out of her Bullhead City, AZ ranch house and saw three neighboring dogs viciously attacking her pet goats. The protective mama managed to save one of the goats, but then the dogs turned on her. During the melee, the horses in the nearby pasture froze – all except Fortune. An … [Read more...]

When staff at the Meadow Brook Medical Care Facility in Bellaire, MI arrived one recent July morning, they were astonished to find a dog curled up on the couch in the waiting room. Miraculously, Scout had escaped the night before from a nearby animal shelter, managed to scale the 10-foot chain link fence and another 6-foot solid privacy fence, cross a busy highway without being … [Read more...]

About a month ago, during her summer vacation, eleven-year-old Esma Gljiva from Sarajevo, Bosnia, started creating folklore-style Barbies with Balkan costumes like headdresses and decorative aprons. The timing was interesting, given the enormous success of the new Barbie movie, released in mid-July. But Esma hadn’t seen the film. Her project was inspired, she says, by her … [Read more...]