By Amanda van Kammen, Germany
My family and I decided to spend our autumn holidays in the Caribbean. This vacation was a dream come true. I immediately loved the island, with its sunlight, nature settings, and friendly local people. Almost immediately when I walked around the island, I started recalling memories of a past life there.
By Kristy Walker, Minnesota
As a wildlife photographer, I had always wanted to photograph swans with their babies. One year I spotted a swan in a marsh at a park near my home. I could hardly believe it, but this female was making a nest. Every day I visited the place in hopes of seeing her babies.
By Sheri Kramer, Minnesota
Some years ago, I was having one of those days where I felt particularly sad and lonely. Rather than stay home and sulk, I opted to spend some time at a nearby nature preserve. As I drove there, I asked the Mahanta, the inner presence I can always count on, to help me feel less lonely.
By Johanna Kothbauer, Germany
I have always been skeptical of miracles. As a doctor in Munich, Germany, my miracles are to discover exactly how the eyes work and can be healed, for instance, or how they interact with the brain.
But once during a long journey to the other side of the world, a different sort of miracle occurred.
By Steve Runfeldt, Minnesota
During my first phase of graduate school, I studied how bonobos communicate and vocalize. They are cousins of chimpanzees. My graduate-school professor, an expert on animal communication, had worked with renowned scientist and author Jane Goodall in the past.
By Gillian Wilkins, Queensland, Australia
For thirty years, I worked as a small-animal veterinarian, mostly for cats and dogs. I also treated reptiles, guinea pigs, and mice and realized I really like exotic, unusual, and wild animals.