Nobody has it “figured out”
I tried not to sell the surprise on my face. I had spent the better part of the previous hour sitting in a local coffee shop with a gentleman that goes to my church. It was basically our first-ever conversation after having sat near each other in church for most of the last 5-6 years. […]
Everyone is afraid.
I can’t remember the exact quote or even find it – which is weird because I take and keep a whole lot of notes. But I was reading something about the military and their discipline, and the topic of fear came up. The author quoted a higher-up in the military (I know these exact details […]
You don’t get better by lowering the bar.
He wasn’t stupid. I sat across the table from a young man who stared at a blank sheet of notebook paper in front of him, pencil in hand. He wasn’t writing. He didn’t even know where to begin. Though I did my best to keep a poker face, several emotions ripped through me – including […]
If it matters to you, then nothing else matters
Last night, my family and I drove 40 minutes to visit with an old college friend of mine, her husband, and their brand new baby girl. The baby was born last month, and we like to visit at the hospital when we get the opportunity. But having had two kids of our own, we also […]
Keeping pain in perspective
Yesterday, I opened up about some of the difficulties that I and my family have experienced in the last few years. It was a pretty vulnerable post, but I’m glad I wrote it. It has also gotten quite a reaction. I’ve had friends comment that they “had no idea things were so bad” for us […]
If you’re going through hell, keep going.
I’ll never forget the look in her eyes. It was somewhere near the beginning of August 2018. My wife was standing in my office with tears streaming down her cheeks. I hated every second of it. She was struggling. She was scared. She was beaten down and worn out, and she felt desperate. Because of […]
Make do with what you have, where you are.
I love – love – hanging Christmas lights on a house. When I was a young adult, my mom tasked me with handling the lights situation on our house for a few years. I dreamed big, trying to top myself every year. We lived in a one-story ranch home. There was a short peak on […]
The biggest mistake I’ve made in 4 years of writing fiction
I became a fiction author by accident. After years of college creative writing courses and workshops*, I never really felt like I would write fiction for a living. *Author’s Note: A college “workshop” is where 15 students who know no more than you rip apart whatever you’re writing because they need to say something in […]
The hardest thing about self-publishing
No, it’s not the writing itself. It’s not the planning. It’s not trying to run ads. It’s mindset. I work for myself. Every day, I have a list of things that need to get done for clients, my family, and myself. Guess who gets the short end of that stick? I try to take care […]
If you have access to a toilet, you can live with gratitude today.
If you can read this right now, there is so much to be thankful for. I have always been fascinated with World War II. The mere idea that there was this brutal evil in the world, and a massive coalition of human beings united to stop it – successfully – by sacrificing everything they could? […]