The Problem with Overlooking Yourself for Others
I rolled over on the concrete floor where I had been sleeping, the thin bedroll doing nothing to lessen the ache in my hips. It sounds like I was being held against my will, but the truth is I was…
Essays
Believe In the Beauty of Your Dreams
I was on the cusp of my teenage years when Michael Crichton’s Jurassic Park, was released. I didn’t learn about it until I had just turned thirteen. As a voracious reader, and also somebody who still loves dinosaurs, it was…
Do You Know What You Value?
David Gerrold is a prolific sci-fi screenwriter and novelist. When he was about 23 years old he wrote the script for the original Star Trek episode called “The Trouble with Tribbles.” He’s also famous for having penned: Life is hard…
How to Grow by Doing What You’re Not Good At
The June afternoon sun was beating down on my neck as I hunched forward, holding the seat of my middle son’s bicycle. I’d just removed the training wheels, and I was, for what felt like the thousandth time, steadying the…
Are You In Your Beautiful, Little Rut?
Have you ever been on a farm that uses those giant sprinklers, anchored at the center, that sweep in a massive circle? Those are called irrigation pivots. Pivots, for short. During periods of heavy irrigation, the massive structures roll slowly…
Enough Is Worth Striving For
My favorite song, “Enough” by Gentri, opens with a haunting phrase: I wake to face the day already buried under the noise that never fades.¹ That’s how my life feels most days, and most of it’s self-inflicted. I tallied the…
Why It’s Hard to Serve Others
Hurricane Katrina pounded the US Gulf Coast with relentless ferocity for 8 days in August of 2005. It caused an estimated $125 billion (or more) in damage — including the destruction of 300,000 homes — across 90,000 square miles of…
A Mark of True Leadership
I realize the title of the article is a bit on the nose since I’m going to talk about a great leader I knew named Mark, but the opportunity was just too good to pass up. Mark was an unassuming…
A Sense of Where You Are
My dad remarried in 1994 not long after my mom passed away following a lengthy battle with cancer. My dad and bonus mom decided it would be fun to send the kids to Disneyland — a chance to get to…
Take Care Not to Give Too Much for Whistles
Until I was 12 years old or so, my prized possession was a small, stuffed lion that I had for as long as I could remember. When I made my bed in the morning (I really did make my bed…
Will Your Losses Lead to Your Triumphs?
I didn’t know what I would find when I put my earphones in and turned on Livingston’s “A Hometown Odyssey” album. My youngest and I regularly jam out to Shadow from that album, but until yesterday, I was ignorant to…
Sometimes, You Watch the Movie
I have more to do than I can possibly do in the time available to me. A big part of that problem is being a “yes man.” I derive a lot of personal satisfaction and self-worth from helping other people…
Every Story Has an Ending
“You’ve got to suffer to learn.” I didn’t like that phrase, but it was something my twelfth grade English teacher — Mama Squires to us — repeated often. I had a special relationship with Mama Squires. She had a son…
How Do You Measure Progress?
I spent weeks working on a piece of software that accomplished something I’d never done before. On a precise schedule, it would pick up a file from one semi-aged computer system, translate it into something an even older system could…
The Problem of Too Much Willful Will
Pedro was a man who believed his work was of the utmost importance. Every day, even on weekends, he arrived at his office before dawn, ready to tackle the day’s challenges with an iron will. Pedro’s job, in his eyes…
