It was our eldest son’s 21st birthday, and our family had gathered for a celebration. Before dinner, we were sitting in the living room when Hunter pulled up his sleeve, proudly displaying a motorcycle tattoo on his forearm, a gift from his roommate (who I plan to give a pony!)
In a not-so-great moment of fatherhood, I blurted out, “Please tell me that is a henna tattoo.” It was not.
Last week, looking out the back window of our house, I saw our dog Hobbs standing over the carcass of a possum. He was sniffing it cautiously and had a “what do I do now?” look about him. Finally, he walked away, disappointed with the end of his chase. As he was leaving, I saw […]
She came up to me while I was in line at the bakery. I hadn’t seen her for years. “Hi Al!” she said. “Is life treating you great?” The way she asked it, there was only one acceptable answer. I wish you could have seen the contortions my mind was going through in the several seconds between her question and my answer. I knew there were a couple of options for my response.
Let’s face it – we all make stuff up! While we have legitimate questions — Why didn’t they call back? Why wasn’t I invited? I wonder why I wasn’t chosen for this or that? — we often answer them with a negative and active imagination.
Our fears lead us to lonely and crazy places. We often run from the wrong things. Sometimes we end up fighting ridiculous battles against imagined enemies. Often what we fight or evade are the very things destined to bless us.
My wife Nita and I were finally buckled into our seats on a plane en route to the beach for a week of quiet and rest. It had been a long year, full of changes. Among those changes—we’d packed up our house, renovated it for a sale, bought a new house in a new town, […]
I am finding that the older I get, the less I need to say.
It’s not that I don’t have thoughts about things. I have plenty of them. But these days as I edge toward my sixth decade, many of those thoughts simply do not need to be expressed. Most of my […]
It was an ordinary Saturday morning in D.C. I’d had breakfast earlier with friends who worked on the Hill and was cleaning up my apartment. Music was playing on the radio. Though the time I’m talking about was in the 1980s, it seems like it was yesterday. About 12:30 PM, I got a call on […]
When I was 25 years old, I paid $15,000 for my first house. They wanted $20,000, but willingly took my offer. If you saw the house, you’d know why I got a deal. Quite a few window panes were broken out, the kitchen had only a sink (no cabinets), and the floor was lower in […]
There’s a great quote from Frederick Buechner about tears and it goes like this: Whenever you find tears in your eyes, especially unexpected tears, it is well to pay the closest attention. They are not only telling you something about the secret of who you are, but more often than not God is speaking to […]
I have a confession to make that may make some of you dismiss me as having neither taste nor class. Judge me if you will: I like the Three Stooges. There. I said it. When Larry hits Curly on the head with a sledgehammer and it makes a metal clanking noise, I think it’s hilarious. […]