Nietzsche once wrote, “Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.” I understood the idea when I first encountered it, but I don’t think I understood the warning. Not really. It took decades for me to realize that sometimes the people we most desperately insist we […]
Between twenty and thirty, I was indestructible. Or at least I lived as though I were. Somewhere after forty and before sixty, life quietly corrected that assumption. For a few years, I let myself go more than I should have, and when the answer from the medical world began sounding increasingly like a diet of […]
Not just in the things I’m proud of. In the restless parts, too. The drive. The creativity. The stubborn belief that there is always one more thing that can be accomplished before the day is finished. Mom was an artist long before life gave her much room to be one. She grew up in Missouri’s […]
There comes a moment when you realize… The past is an incredible teacher. It’s just a terrible place to live. We weren’t meant to carry every regret forever. We weren’t meant to replay every mistake until it became our identity. We weren’t meant to let yesterday keep stealing today’s joy. The past has already done […]
I stopped when I saw this painted on a fence: “Worry is a misuse of imagination.” The more I thought about it, the more I realized how much of life is spent suffering through futures that never arrive. We imagine the diagnosis before the doctor calls. We imagine the rejection before we ask. We imagine […]
Not loudly. Not all at once. But day by day… conversation by conversation… sunrise by sunrise… and yes, even in the quiet of nights like this. Here at Port Isabel Park Center, life moves outside. Chairs come out before the coffee is finished. Strangers become neighbors. Neighbors become friends. And friends… become part of your […]
There’s something about this bridge… The Queen Isabella Causeway doesn’t just connect Port Isabel to South Padre Island— it connects who you were to who you’re becoming. Every time I cross it, I’m reminded: We’re all in transition. Leaving something behind. Moving toward something we don’t fully understand yet. Some days it feels like freedom. […]
It sounds poetic… until you realize how practical it really is. Because when things feel uncertain, divided, or heavy— our instinct isn’t to give more love. It’s to protect, withdraw, defend, and prove. But every book I’ve written keeps leading me back to the same place: In Stillness in the Storm, peace doesn’t come from […]
There’s something about watching your children grow into their own lives that humbles you. This photo was taken years ago in Colorado—my first-born son, Mack. Standing there with the kind of quiet confidence young men carry when the world is wide open in front of them. As parents, we think we’re teaching them everything. Work […]
What I thought I was beginning was martial arts. What I eventually discovered was art. Aikido, like painting, is built on the same foundations every artist learns to see: Line — the direction energy travels. Weight — balance, grounding, center. Shape — the form created between two people moving together. Space — the invisible canvas […]