It happened in the most ordinary of moments, on my drive home after grocery shopping at Patel’s, where I go for my Indian vegetables and spices. The store had been playing familiar Bollywood melodies, creating a little pocket of India in Morton Grove as shoppers filled their carts. I walked back to my car with that satisfaction you feel when you know your refrigerator and pantry will be well stocked for the days ahead, still humming a song that had floated into my ears while shopping. It was...

Christmas and Hanukkah are around the corner—two bright traditions arriving side by side. When holidays converge, they offer humanity a quiet invitation to revisit the roots of our faith. Just as birthdays help us renew our relationship with ourselves, and anniversaries help us reflect on the bonds we share with those we love, sacred holidays call us to reconnect with the heart of what we trust. Whether one calls it God, Spirit or the Universe —or, like the atheist, places trust in science,...

Have you heard of Aesop’s fable The Fox and the Grapes ? It tells of a fox who, unable to reach a cluster of luscious grapes, walks away muttering that they must have been sour anyway. As a child, I never quite understood why this was considered a problem. Honestly, I thought the fox was being sensible. I grew up with my mother repeating a teaching from a nun at her convent school: When God doesn’t give you what you want, He will give you something far better and more useful.  This had...