There once was an inquisitive, thoughtful girl named May. She was born in Belgium, about 100 years ago. She lived there only a few years until the German invasion in 1914. Fleeing Europe, May Sarton and her family came to live in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where May’s father became a professor.

The ban started in 2006, on Tanzania's Zanzibar archipelago. The Zanzibar islands on the Indian Ocean are famous for their pristine beaches and their history of trade in spices and slaves. Today, Zanzibar depends on tourism for most of its income. One month after this island paradise was named as...

A retelling of a Buddhist Jataka Tale. Once there was a village that was prosperous. The wealthiest of the villagers was afraid that the town’s reputation would attract thieves, so they buried a huge lump of gold in a field for safe keeping. Many years passed and the village lost much of its...

Trout Are Made of Trees by April Pulley Sayre, text copyright 2008. Used with permission by Charlesbridge Publishing, Inc.Read the story dramatically and have fun with the sound effects! Trout are made of trees. In fall, trees let go of leaves, which swirl and twirl and slip into streams....

We gratefully acknowledge Dawn Publications for permission to use the text of the children's picture book The Tree in the Ancient Forest by Carol Reed-Jones. This is the ancient forest. This is the three-hundred-year-old tree That grows in the ancient forest....

Adapted from "Why the Sky is Far Away" in The Barefoot Book of Earth Tales by Dawn Casey and Anne Wilson (Cambridge: Barefoot Books, 2009). Used by permission. In the beginning, they sky was close to the earth. So close you could reach up and touch it. And you could eat it! In those days, people...

After many years in a congregation, she’d had enough. Knowing the people as well as she did, she knew that what they said on Sunday and what they did on Monday did not always equate....

Once upon a time there was a Teacher who was known far and wide as one who had mastered all the great disciplines of a spiritual seeker. She wandered the country, and whenever people heard she was near, they traveled to seek her wisdom and her guidance. ...

This story is an excerpt from the essay "Balance" by Unitarian Universalist minister Susan Manker-Seale, included in the book Everyday Spiritual Practice: Simple Pathways for Enriching Your Life, edited by Scott W. Alexander (Skinner House Books, 1999). My daily spiritual practice is to balance....

"So, Ray," asked his mother, "what do you want for your birthday?" It was a surprisingly hard question to answer. What did he want for his birthday? "I don't know, Mom. Can I get back to you on that one?" Ray grabbed his skateboard and went out to the driveway to think as he rode....

Adapted, with permission, from “The Heartless King,” an Indian folk tale adapted by Sophia Fahs in From Long Ago and Many Lands, second edition, by Sophia Fahs and Patricia Hoertdoerfer and illustrated by Cyrus Leroy Baldridge (Boston: Skinner House Books, 1995). Once upon a time there lived a...

A true story. The mosquitoes in Borneo were terrible. On bad days, the people of Borneo would be covered in mosquito bites. (Leader — Ask, "And what do you suppose would happen?" Wait for someone to suggest that it would itch and people would scratch / make the bites bleed.) That's right — those...