Ya’ll, I wrote about life after legwarmers and let me tell you, my “research” to refresh my memory back to the day (because hello, decades ago), was nothing short of eye soreness. Videos of what I used to know about health, exercise, and fashion made me cringe and laugh at the same time. From our remote and cell-phone-less cabin in the Kiamichi Mountains of south-eastern Oklahoma with the provided grill...
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On this farm, I’ve looked myself in the eye and didn’t like what I saw. I’ve wondered and asked like a child, ‘How long?’ I’ve watched days turn into years. I’ve wanted to bury myself under covers, stay all the live-long day, and dream of by-gone days in Indiana or Kentucky. I’ve shrieked at Rat Snakes climbing pecan trees. I’ve swept thankfulness out the broken, back door. I’ve been a stiff-neck-er, as...
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“Each time a door closes, the rest of the world opens up.” Parker J. Palmer, Let Your Life Speak My feet flew over Tommi’s sticker-y grass. I sailed like a bird flapping its arms, except mine flailed to keep from landing on my head. I had kicked my feet in one final push, as high as the metal swing set would allow, when I launched myself out. I was nine years old. All I knew–I was going to win the...
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“We may catch our calling as it hurtles toward us, but mostly we are caught in its web long before we recognize its existence.” Dan B. Allender, PhD, To Be Told–God Invites You to Coauthor Your Future. I’m not especially cynical. But there was a particular time when it took hold. I suspected motives. I doubted sincerity. I crossed my arms and squinted eyes at the overly-cheery people. I had to...
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I had come to the class to teach public speaking. But I had not come to teach about being perfect at it. In fact, as I shifted my weight side to side and stumbled over my um’s, I pretty much broke every public speaking rule in the book. They had signed up to learn about Speech. I had signed up to teach about courage. It was two years ago from the podium, I stood in front of homeschooled high-schoolers to...
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My family and I dodged through a congest Dallas. Just earlier, we witnessed where rain had swollen creekbeds until they raged with rapids. But now cars jammed together like a snake of metal along highways, participating in the normal big city traffic. I clutched the arm of our car door as semi’s bee-bopped between lanes, without so much as a care to cars. I pointed my finger, “There, there,” along the...
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