“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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I’ve not posted one of these in a while, but this song leapt out of nowhere to tackle me. Lady A has provided me with some of my favorite easy listening and romantic country ballads. I have enjoyed being their fan for nearly a decade, I think. But what has pulled me even closer...
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I needed to get out for a little while after sitting in a cool house today for work, so I took off work a little early and decide to go visit Los Poblanos Open Space off of Montgomery west of 4th street. I took my camera with me, as always, because I figured there...
Read more →In August of 2020, a friend of mine suggested that I give a book, “A Gentleman in Moscow”, a read. The book, pretty popular at that moment, was already known by me from advertising, but I didn’t have the drive I needed to pick it up and start reading it. “We’ll read it at...
Read more →It has been 25 minutes now that I have been staring at this screen, taking sips of coffee, dipping into Facebook and then kicking myself off of it again, asking Google for writing prompts. And I find myself at this place so frequently when I tell myself to write something. “Try writing something about...
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It was evidently a banner year last year for many, if not most, U.S. National Parks. With COVID locking away a majority of Americans in 2020, many of the locked-aways pushed back in 2021, and with limitations and reticence about flying still holding down air travel, the locked-aways made road destinations their targets for...
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I try to recall how I ended up dancing that distant dance those years with you Come pray with me you asked I will pray with you I replied And so we met plainly cordially quietly in the library and muttered wishing words asking for youthful and holy and grand and kind things and...
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It’s interesting to me. Before COVID grasped the world in 2020, I sensed myself riding the same escalator as most younger people, interested in attaining that which is characteristic of many Americans: having stuff. You don’t think about it much, but that’s how it is with life when you are young and developing. You...
Read more →Late this afternoon, I was looking out the front door with Po joining me at my feet when I heard a vehicle approaching, making an odd noise. Thwappety-thwappety-thwappety-thwappety… It stopped at my neighbor’s house. My neighbor’s van had a full-on flat on the rear driver’s side tire. For a moment, I backed away from...
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