Sarah Adams believes that it is good luck to extend compassion and understanding to pizza delivery drivers, and to tip them well. Doing so is a practice in humility and forgiveness, empathy and honor, and equality.

Adams is an English professor at Olympic college in Washington.

Phyllis Allen’s sense of self has changed throughout her lifetime under the influence of cultural changes which affected her as an African American woman. In her 50s, Allen finally feels able to define her own identity and follow her mother’s advice to simply be the best version of herself.

Allen sells advertising in her native Texas, but hopes to pursue her passion for writing when she retires.

Isabel Allende reflected deeply on her beliefs while caring for and later mourning her daughter Paula, who died at the age of 28 after a yearlong coma. Allende realized that the only thing you truly have in life and all that matters is that which you give to others, so she now loves freely and gives selflessly in all parts of her life.

Allende is a multi-award winning Chilean American novelist.