For Christmas this year, my family generously pooled funds and bought me a ticket to attend the Outsiders Photography Conference that would be held March 4th through 6th in Kanab, Utah. Time marched forward, and prior to the conference weekend, I put a request in at work to take off some extra days around...
Read more →“The secret is, if what we need and want is missing, we begin by going back to where we last saw it.” – Anne Lamott I saw this quote by Anne today and thought, “Wow- that is a pretty interesting insight.” I spend so much of my mental life looking back, and a lot...
Read more →Tonight was the second installment of the Writing Short Stories class with Robert Gish at the UNM CE campus on University. I wrote about Gish and week one here, and tonight continued to be more of the same, where “the same” is a whole stew of tips on writing and the sharing of definition...
Read more →This last August, I enjoyed going to my 30th high school reunion, if nothing more than to see a bunch of faces that I, 30 years ago and some, used to see day in and day out at school- although, in much younger versions. That’s the thing about reunions- for those that go, everyone...
Read more →Every so often I find myself thinking about Claude Wheeler in Willa Cather’s novel, “One of Ours”. It happens mostly when my life seems to hit another prolonged lull, or plows full on into a series of roadblocks and whatever momentum I thought I had going is stamped out cold. I go back to...
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I often wonder where it came from, this tendency in me. No doubt it was there when I was five, on the playground at school, hanging out on the Weebly-Wobbly that was close to the surrounding fence. I know it was there in middle school, when I would hug the walls walking from class...
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For whatever reason, coming into this year, it felt like a good time to review my heart life, and to re-evaluate my faith walk. I felt the need to do this because I was reminded by the example of good friends that faith expresses itself more in what you do than in what you...
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Tullian had a post today on his blog about the centrality of the gospel in the Christian’s life, and how for many, it is viewed as simply the gate one passes through to join the club, instead of as the path one must walk down into Christ’s kingdom. He makes the point that preachers...
Read more →In my efforts to try and understand the meaning of being a man, I ask questions as a Christian. Because I am a Christian, I look for answers that fit within a particular cosmology that describes the purpose and meaning of life. A cosmology is a world-view or perspective that provides suggestions as to...
Read more →My brother and his family have been packing up all this week for a moment that occurs early tomorrow morning- when they will collectively pile into two vehicles, and start a long drive that will take them out of New Mexico. Moving away. Possibly for good. I shouldn’t look at this transition in our...
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Today was a good Labor Day, although I continued to feel tired most of the day. The bulk of the day was spent at home. After a year of captivity, I let the cats out to scout the house. My little boy was like, “Meh.” The little girl came downstairs and cautiously checked out...
Read more →I wrote this up about a month and a half ago. Thinking back over the last few years, and also about the plateau of what’s left of my life before me, I asked myself, “What is really important to me? What does a meaningful life look like when it is done?” It certainly would...
Read more →Today I did something that I rarely (if ever) do, and it was, well, hard. I told an old friend I was disappointed in him. The moment for the acknowledgement began innocently enough. I received an email from him which had a short blurb telling me about a friend he had known from childhood...
Read more →I was digging around in a few boxes in the garage tonight when I came across a thin hard-covered little book I hadn’t seen in a while. The little book was a journal from the summer of 1994. A travel notebook. Decorating the front cover of the notebook is an old map with hand-drawn...
Read more →My buddy Ben, mustache man and runner extraordinaire, gave me a copy of Kevin Hall’s book Aspire for Christmas. The book has been a good read so far. I didn’t know anything about Kevin Hall or the book before he sent it to me, but the title caption was inviting enough: “Discovering your purpose...
Read more →New year, new resolutions. What do you change? What do you let go of? What do you set out after? What do you change in yourself? Overall, last year was a really great year. But this year is this year- the one to look at and to think about. I am not super stoked...
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