Back on December 30th of last year, I wrote about perhaps the biggest frustration I face as I try to live my life- and it is my regular fight with passivity. I stated then that I knew the problem with it I was having, and that I just needed to be more assertive with...
Read more →In today’s reading in Mark, out of chapter 7, the Pharisees try to corner Jesus and his disciples about how their eating practices look a lot like defiling behaviors before the law. But Jesus will not let them take him there. From where does personal defilement come? From what is ingested, or from how...
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This afternoon, my brother texted my immediate family with some good news, and my mom replied to him that it called for a fat celebration for he and his wife. She gave him an encouraging word, and then in an immediate followup text to just me and my dad, she said “I’ll fix supper...
Read more →A the start of this year, I joined a group of people who wanted to read through the New Testament in the year. It’s a convenient exercise to do, because there are 260 chapters in the New Testament, which makes accomplishing the feat involve reading 1 chapter a day, 5 days a week. Anyways,...
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I needed to get out today, so about noon I got my stuff all in the truck and headed for NM-14. Why NM-14? I have no idea. My original plan was to end up at Santa Cruz Lake by Nambe at dusk, and I guess NM-14 was a more interesting way to get there....
Read more →When Saturday rolled around, Taggart was up long before the sun. Unable to sleep because of the week’s stressors and his unabated agitation, Joe was in his Ford by 5:15, his truck aimed east, out of town. Once he escaped the suburbs by 6:00, he rumbled on coarse asphalt through Decker’s Pass and down...
Read more →Tonight I enjoyed the first movie I’ve watched in a little while since I have tried to dedicate myself a little more to reading and writing since the beginning of the year. Ever since seeing the trailer for the Marvel film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, I had anticipated taking the...
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Let’s continue on in the “Seven Things” series. I sometimes have a sizable problem. I like sugar and sugary things. A lot. And I am occasionally surprised, at this point in my life, that I am not a diabetic. But I have tried to moderate my sugar splurges. Still? Candy usually equals yes. Tonight,...
Read more →“But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” – Matthew 19:22 In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Gospel authors each tell the story of a wealthy young man who comes to Jesus and asks him what one must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven....
Read more →I have nothing today, so here is the voice of my enemy, which does well to drive me to waste excessive amounts of my time staring at a blank screen and toss me headlong me into abject frustration. 1. “I have nothing to say.” 2. “I hate these words.” 3. “That sounds idiotic.” 4....
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Tonight after work I met my sister, her husband, and her eldest son for a walk in the Sandia foothills at dusk. I had my camera with me, but a long stretch of clouds to the west made the prospects of remarkable light at sun down seem pretty slim. Except, there was a thin...
Read more →When I was a kid, my family lived on a street in Northeast Albuquerque with a cul-de-sac that backed up against Juan Tabo Boulevard and sat north of Copper by a block. From 1973 to 1978, I was a student at Tomasita Elementary School, which was several blocks west of our street. My memories...
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I have been slowly working through the book Great Landscape Photography, and in several of the early chapters, author Glenn Randall stresses how he has used imagination and planning to help him take some remarkable photos. In the last few days, I have been reading a chapter where Randall goes in depth to explain...
Read more →It’s 8 PM on this Friday night, and I find myself ready to go to sleep, which is often a rarity for me. But for whatever reason, it has felt like a long week this week, and my body seems to be saying it could use a break. I’ve been re-reading simple sentences three...
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In an effort to climb out of persistent writer’s block, I used a list format on yesterday’s post to try and jumpstart some creativity. And, you know what? I liked that approach so much I thought, say, why stop a good thing? Making a list is a good way to make my mind dig...
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I thought for a detour tonight I would take a walk by the several bookshelves in my living room and flag seven books on them that I should really read, but for whatever reason, have not. Here they are, in no significant order, and since this is a cursory survey, if I looked harder,...
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