My four year-old sits quietly in the pew with his pen and paper. All around him, the sanctuary is dark and full of mystery. His slow hand moves and concentrates across the space and centimeters of paper. I hear deep, unspoken conversations taking place between him and the lines and shapes. He works like a surgeon, speaks from behind a mask....

The plaque doesn’t match anything in the room. In fact, it looks out of place in an already cluttered spot. So during last-minute straightening and dusting this past week, I snatched the plaque to get it out of sight. I was thinking about giving it away. My son, who was practicing piano, suddenly stopped playing....

We’re covered in paint, and the lawn is too, fenced in brown, the geese calling autumn and trees dropping leaves. Everywhere, color. Color is music for the eyes. We’re finger-painting in the grass, my son and I. He’s one-and-a-half and he’s never done this before....

Dealing with the narcissists in our lives is never easy, but there is hope for improving these difficult relationships, says Laity Leadership Institute Senior Fellow Allan Josephson, M.D. Narcissism develops out of early relationships and is sustained by subsequent ones, so it’s important to nip the problem in the bud....