Rising From Ashes

This morning, I sat down as I do each morning to begin writing. Just before I began, I saw a notice about a 12-minute documentary film a friend of mine, Danny Hall, had edited and posted on his Facebook wall. For some reason, I felt led to put aside my normal writing...

The Virtue of Reliability

My 17-year-old pickup truck has a pronounced virtue. It is reliable. It starts and goes wherever I steer it, and it’s never let me down. I’ve driven through Montana blizzards and endured bumper-to-bumper rush hour traffic in downtown LA. In both of those settings, I...
Christmas Joy

Christmas Joy

Our home and tree are smaller nowadays, but the Christmas morning joy still remains. I just played Santa and placed our presents under the tree. As I stood back and looked at the lighted tree and the colorful presents, I had a flashback to a familiar childlike...

The Negative Effects of Sarcasm

During lunch last week, my daughter and I were talking about communication within relationships when the subject of sarcasm came up. Anna is a wordsmith by degree and life-experience. She shared with me the word sarcasm means “to tear the flesh.” While I have never...

Don’t Let It Happen

I’ve been alive long enough to have lived through several seasons of cultural upheaval. The current season may well be the most intense. When so much is happening, and people are taking sides, lobbing their perspectives like mortars into other people’s lives, it is...