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There’s a local story of a guy named Randy Reid, a 34-year-old construction worker welding on top of a water tower. He unhooked his safety harness to reach for some pipes when a metal cage slipped and bumped the scaffolding he stood on. The scaffolding tipped, and Reid lost his balance. He fell 110 feet, landing face down on a pile of dirt, barely missing rocks and construction debris. A coworker immediately called 911.

Hiking at Starved Rock, I was thrilled to see dozens of eagles and many nests in the high trees atop the rocky cliffs along the river. They’re fairly easy to spot in the wild from below. But I’ve never seen one from above except for those that had been preserved and relocated to a display case, like the visitor center at the state park.

Think about it: Work is life. Life is work. With the amount of time you spend on the job, if you don’t learn to love it and gain fulfillment from it, it’s going to be a miserable life. But it’s not about finding a job you love. It’s about working in a way that you love the people around you and you love to accomplish things and produce.

The Apostle Paul wrote, “We are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago” (Ephesians 2:10 NLT). Did you catch that? You are God’s masterpiece! The original word Paul used for masterpiece in Greek was poema. We get our word “poem” from that word. That’s how God created you, as an intricately designed and carefully worded poem, put together just as He planned for you to be. His masterpiece.

Linda and I were in Romania a couple of weeks ago, and we visited a medieval castle where the vampire legend of Count Dracula was supposedly based.

Philosopher Walter Kaufmann wrote a book ironically titled, The Faith of a Heretic. After explaining our cosmic insignificance, he concluded: “What I want to do and would advise others to do is to make the most of life: put into it all you have got and live, and, if possible, die with some measure of nobility.”

A middle school student in Idaho won first prize in a project he did for his school’s science fair. He wanted to show how conditioned Americans have become to accept junk science without thinking through published studies or their conclusions. In his project, he urged people to sign a petition demanding strict control or total elimination of the chemical "dihydrogen monoxide."

“Strength is a matter of the made-up mind.” – John Beecher If you want to get anything done, you have to start with a decision to do it.

I just learned that another friend of mine is dying. Without previous warning, he began to experience what he thought were mild symptoms that gave him concern and went for a check-up. Stage four liver cancer. A follow-up CAT scan revealed tumors in both his liver and his lungs. He is still unsure what he will do, but the prognosis offers no hope.

Remember the days before digital cameras and smartphone pictures? We used to buy film and then take the pictures to a lab to develop them before we could see them.

Lena Paahlsson, of central Sweden, lost her wedding ring. Like any happily married wife, she became pretty distressed over losing it, especially since she had designed it herself and had it custom made. It was a beautiful white-gold band with seven diamond studs embedded.

Not every season is the same. Six months ago, I was enjoying my patio almost every early morning and evening. Temperatures soared into the upper 80s during the day and dropped to barely 70 degrees at night.