A few weekends ago, I took New Mexico’s Highway 76- “the High Road to Taos”- north to do some church photography. It was a fine decision, because Highway 76, a 30-mile loop off of the normal route between Santa Fe and Taos, takes you into rolling picturesque hills on the west side of the...
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While trying to come up with a meaningful topic for the morning, I spent a while online tracking my friend Ben finishing the Charlottesville Marathon. Several miles from the finish line, he was being paced by the women’s leader of the race, and he was slowly creeping closer to her. It was good drama,...
Read more →This morning I dreamed I went back to the seminary I attended to tour its campus and when I went I took my pet beagle with me and while I was in a building there my dog got away from me and disappeared and I panicked and ran room by room through the building...
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I came home tonight from work tonight feeling much like I have many evenings recently. Listless. Unfocused. Anxious. Frustrated. Tired. Isolated. Stuck. The natural answer to the symptoms at the moment was to just go out and walk. So I went out and walked for an hour. It was good to just move randomly...
Read more →When He is your Father And you come to a goodbye, Lift your soul to Him And say, “Thank you.” If you feel separation and grief, Lift your eyes to Him And say “Thank you”. If you feel warmth and tenderness, Lift your arms to Him And say “Thank you”. If you feel bruised...
Read more →Why do you yell? Why do you rant and rave? Your cause of concern will pop like a bubble in time, a soon passing thing, like any thing, like all things- this too shall pass, this too shall pass, this too shall pass. Justice is inexact. Your hunger for it will not be quenched,...
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I went to bed last night itching to go somewhere this morning. With reports of possible snow in eastern Arizona, I heavily considered going to Canyon de Chelly near Chinle. After all, in fine weather, it is just a three and a half hour drive from Albuquerque. But then the alarm clock went off...
Read more →When Billy was not quite three, when my dad’s folks lived in Dodge City, before Dad was born, Billy was outside playing with a neighborhood boy. The neighbor boy had a gun. In whatever they were doing, there were bullets on the ground, and the boy told Billy to pick up some of them....
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The sun is falling, in flight from the blue haze in the east The heat is broken and light has softened- tender hues suffuse the sky and gild the white house walls in gold A careless breeze ferries about a fragrance of family in food- cornbread and chicken, buttery cheesy noodles, a savory gravy,...
Read more →I had an internal crisis this week that was a good wake-up call in a few areas. I received a phishing email very early Thursday morning that claimed that a hacker had accessed my hard drive through a compromised email account, and that the intruder had planted malware on my computer that would share...
Read more →“Welcome to NorthSouth Airlines. How can I help you?” “Good morning. I would like to get a single round-trip ticket to Seattle.” “Ahh, okay- for what dates?” “Leaving here on January 14th, and returning on the 23rd.” “This is for a minor? I see that you have a minor here with you.” “No- this...
Read more →It’s funny what sticks with you over the years. When I was a freshman at Eldorado High School, unsure and unconfident, I remember one fall evening sitting out on the big rock by the east parking lot waiting for a ride home. It was following an evening tryout for the school’s basketball teams. It...
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When I went to bed last night, I was considering a morning road trip, just to get out of the house a bit with the camera, with some hopes I might find some lovely snowy scene to photograph. I wasn’t committed, but it sounded like a nice morning pursuit. When I awoke around 6...
Read more →Spoiler Alert: Not intending to give the show away, I do provide descriptions here that do explain some of the plot of “The Good Place”. Read on if that is okay with you. If you haven’t watched the show yet, it is excellent, and I’d encourage you to check it out. One of my...
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For several weekends, I have toyed with the thought of visiting the ruins at the Salinas Pueblo Missions National Monument, which is located southeast of Albuquerque down by Mountainair. Tim at work had told me about them a few years ago, and my dad had mentioned we had probably visited them in the past,...
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