Back Pain

I suffer from lower back pain. Thankfully it is not constant and is often tied to my controllable behaviors. The better I take care of myself, the less pain I experience. Today is one of the days where I hurt, and I have been thinking about how that affects me. While pain is necessary as…

Read More

Lying Labels

Thomas the Apostle got a bad rap. Branded forever as “doubting Thomas”, the label unfairly reduced him to a one-dimensional character and forever tainted the name Thomas. I have always been personally offended by this. Labels are conflicted things. Summing up a person or a product in a simple, easy to grasp, and memorable label…

Read More

Be Good To Yourself

I have always said there is truth in Rock-n-Roll. Popular music is just that, because it is about themes we can all relate to—like love and heartbreak, winning and losing, being lost and becoming found, and all the others of an endless array of experience and emotion. One of the bands that resonated with my…

Read More

I Feel Loved

In “I Feel Loved,” the 2001 release by English electronic group Depeche Mode, Martin Gore’s lyrics paint a picture of how feeling loved cuts through pain and heartache and loneliness. It’s the dark night of my soulAnd temptation’s taking holdBut through the pain and the sufferingThrough the heartache and tremblingI feel loved I recently heard a…

Read More

Body, Mind, And Soul

This past week was a difficult one for me. Unless you are one of my closest friends, you wouldn’t have known, and that is the problem. We’ll talk more about that in a minute. In Doe Parker’s “The Good House & The Bad House”, the author uses a physical house to represent the past and…

Read More

Safety In Numbers

As our last child is a senior in high school this year, we have seen many “lasts.” One was our last Christmas band concert. I must admit, I have, over the years, been an impatient and at times intolerant concert goer. This year was different. I not only really enjoyed the program, but I realized something…

Read More

Rug Pull

Often used in comics and older movies, the rug pull is a classic slapstick move which involves grabbing hold of the rug someone is standing on and quickly pulling it towards you. The unsuspecting individual finds their feet going out from under them as they fall to the floor. This visual trope is the origin…

Read More

The Eyes Have It

I wish I could see like a chameleon, but I wouldn’t want to look like one. They have panoramic binocular eyes which can move independently from each other giving them 360° vision. That kind of sight would be very helpful to a parent! Each creatures’ eyes are uniquely suited to their way of life. Eagles can…

Read More

Fake Plastic Trees

Are you tired? Not “I only got three hours of sleep last night…” tired, but weary, soul heavy, worn-out tired. Have you ever used a paper towel to scrub the stove? It works for a few swipes, but then it rapidly starts falling apart and turning to mush. The paper towel wasn’t meant to be…

Read More

Into The Storm

What are you afraid of? Not the small, temporary things. I’m afraid of spiders, but that doesn’t alter the course of my life in any real or meaningful way (unless not being willing to go camping except in winter months is meaningful). I’m talking about the big things—unanticipated change, being alone and lonely, failure, rejection,…

Read More