Next Avenue brings you stories that are inspiring and change lives. We know that because we hear it from our readers every single day. One reader says, “Every time I read a post, I feel like I’m able to take a single, clear lesson away from it, which i… Continue reading
Chickens. They’re an important part of the agricultural economy, as well as our food chain. But to many people, they’re much more than a main course at dinner. Today, chickens are being widely used as therapy animals across the United States, Canada an… Continue reading
Yom Kippur is a time when it’s comforting to be in familiar surroundings, in a synagogue that you like, with family and friends by your side. That’s because you can use all the support you can muster to fulfill the demanding rituals: fasting for 25 hou… Continue reading
(Excerpted from More Beautiful Than Before: How Suffering Transforms Us) My high school friend Neal’s grandfather had a simple way of summing up forgiveness that I think about a lot every year as Yom Kippur, the Jewish Holy Day devoted to forgiveness, … Continue reading
This is a story about me, a woman of a certain age, gray-haired and a little thick through the middle who, a few summers ago, asked a much younger, positively lithe national park guide …well, I asked her a question I didn’t really want answered. At lea… Continue reading
Weeks before my firstborn grandchild, Lyn, went off to her freshman year of college, she called to say goodbye. “I’d like to visit with you before I leave,” she said. “I have something I want to talk to you about.” I was delighted that she wanted to sp… Continue reading
As I approach the age at which my grandparents’ lives ended — when living past 70 was considered a full life — I feel an urgency to live life to the max. You could say I’m making up for lost time, for every opportunity I let slip by, every time I allow… Continue reading
In my childhood neighborhood, “moving on up” meant a 1970 move from our New York City apartment on 155th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam Avenues to a three-room apartment in a building on Riverside Drive West, near 159th Street in Washington Heig… Continue reading
As she turned 83, my mother, Jill Burger, declared that every birthday is worth marking in a big way. I jumped on a plane to be with her for her most recent special day when she was the star of a family party featuring cake, presents and three generati… Continue reading
(This story was originally published on Next Tribe.) Years ago, when I found out I was pregnant with my second child, I knew what I wanted fervently in my heart. There was none of this “Oh, I don’t care if I have a boy or a girl — I just want the baby … Continue reading