Robert Emmons, PhD, a professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, and psychology professor Michael McCullough of the University of Miami, have long been interested in the role gratitude plays in physical and emotional well being. They took three groups of volunteers and randomly assigned them to focus on one of three things each week: hassles, things for which they were grateful, ...

In Spanglish, Deborah Clasky (Tea Leoni) is the neurotic wife of John Clasky (Adam Sandler), a simple and carefree man who has become a highly acclaimed chef. Deborah is self-absorbed and small-minded, a control freak who blames everyone but herself for her problems. Her selfish patterns have led her into an affair. Evelyn (Cloris Leachman), Deborah’s mother, decides to step in.

Late one evening as ...

By the time Jackson Rogers turned ten years old, he had already built a house—not with hammer and nails, but by raising $43,000 for Habitat for Humanity. The young entrepreneur for the homeless said he undertook the project in February when he accepted $100 and a challenge from his pastor, the Reverend Rich Kannwischer at First Presbyterian Church.

"My pastor gave me $100 and told me to do something ...

Deborah Hale wants to sell her home—and she's willing to cut a deal that includes herself as part of the transaction. At 48, the Albuquerque native says she has a hard time meeting single men her age. The jewelry business owner decided to advertise her home, in the Washington Park section of Denver, as an added incentive for prospective husbands. Since that time, she has had as many as 15,000 ...

In Mona Lisa Smile, Katherine Ann Watson (Julia Roberts) is a young, single teacher in the 1950s who dreamed of teaching at Wellesley College, the prestigious all-women's college in Massachusetts. Offered a job teaching art history, she jumped headlong into the tandem world of academia and high society.

During one class, Katherine pulled out a print of Van Gogh's famous 1888 painting, Sunflowers. "He ...

A New Guinea society has a custom called moka by which gifts are given to gain prestige and shame rivals. One legendary moka gift given in the 1970s included several hundred pigs, some cows and wild birds, a truck, a motorbike, and thousands of dollars in cash. The person who gave all this is said to have told the person he gave it to, "I have won. I have knocked you down by giving so much."

When my daughter Deborah was four years old, she helped me plant the garden as I explained to her about sowing and reaping. "From two or three beans that we put in the soil, we'll probably reap dozens of beans," I told her.

A few weeks later my mother sent Deborah a pair of handknit mittens. It was too warm for mittens that day, but Deborah insisted that she wear them. Later in the afternoon when she ...

As I pulled my brimming shopping cart to a stop at the checkout counter, a toy truck caught my son's eye.

"Mommy--a truck. Can we buy it? Please?"

With his fifth birthday only 11 days away, we had used our money to purchase his first bicycle, the one item he wanted more than anything else in the world. So I said no to the truck.

"You never say yes to anything," he muttered dejectedly before retreating ...

My 3-year-old son, Ian, enjoys the Bible story about Samuel hearing God's voice at night. One evening after reading the story to Ian, I asked him if God had ever spoken to him.

To my surprise, he answered, "Yes."

"What did God say to you?" I asked.

Ian thought and then said in his deepest voice, "Ian! Go to bed!"

That explained why Ian settles down more quickly when I'm outside his room and tell him to ...

The following story shows how the difference between men's and women's communication styles can lead to misunderstanding in marriage:

Eve had a lump removed from her breast. Shortly after the operation, talking to her sister, she said that she found it upsetting to have been cut into, and that looking at the stitches was distressing because they left a seam that had changed the contour of her breast. ...