Walking The Journey

There was once a snail that was in the market for a new car. He arrived at the car lot and was met by a crab that had been selling cars for a very long time. The crab attempted to interest the snail in a variety of cars that the crab knew his boss was trying to unload. The snail, however, was persistent in what he wanted. Finally, the snail eyed a bright pink Cadillac in the back on the lot and told the crab, “That’s the car I want”. The crab was relieved as the snail had been shopping for over 2 hours (snails move pretty slowly you know). But before the snail would purchase the Cadillac, the snail requested that a huge “S” be painted in bold dark black letters on both sides of the car. The crab couldn’t believe that the snail wanted to destroy this beautiful pink Cadillac, but the crab ordered it to be done as the snail desired. Not being able to resist any longer, the crab said, “I just have to ask you, Mr. Snail, why in the world would you want to paint bold black S’s on the sides o...

Walking the beaches of Longboat Key, the warm water bathing my feet, tide in and out, kicking a soccer ball with my son and finding shells with my daughter, enjoying time with my in-laws, a nice breeze, beauty all around, all help me to be very present and focused on what is important in life, on my God and His Majesty, on all that is good and important. In such moments, love becomes so easy to embrace, and Holyness so simple to see. In such clarity, it amazes me how easily we will allow the words of another, the perceived stress of the world, the busyness of this life, the clock, and so on, to so quickly disrupt the peace and serenity in our lives, of the pureness that God desires for us. We so quickly forget and allow the urgent to destroy the important. For today, focus on what is important and let the urgent take care of itself. (The writings in this post are random thoughts and observations and are NEVER intended as professional or personal advice. Take what works and leave t...

“The country is going to hell in a hand basket”, “These kids today, they have no respect”, “No one knows how to drive around here”, “The world is such an awful place these days”, “People are jerks”, “It just isn’t right what’s happening today”, “no, no, no”; just a few comments of negativity that are so much easier to hold onto when one embraces the life of negativity. Negativity is that easy and wide and vacant road that so many people, so many of us, chose to travel when stressed, helpless, and emotionally unsettled. Negativity is like a vast open brown dirt filled desert who’s heat dries up and burns the flesh, ripping moisture from the body, leaving it miserable, sad, painful, lonely. Negatively is often formed in the shadow of habits, not seen, that creep into our being from our family, our parents, our spouse, our friends, our coworkers, those we surround ourselves with, those who walk our journey. People who live in bars believe everyone drinks, those who lie believes everyone ...

Have you been walking along in life, minding your own business, peaceful and content, when out of the cranial darkness leaps an uninvited attacker, a predator, a monster whose sole purpose is to mess with your shui . The beast can take many forms, and like the demon Legion that Jesus cast out in that old story of long ago, can have many names, many faces, and many traits. The one, who has shown his face to the face of my soul, revealing his presence lately, has been irritation. Oh, I suppose his partner frustration is there with him as well. But then again, when the emotional demons arise, do they ever really travel alone? Driving this morning, while many youth in the homes I passed remained sleeping in their summer slumbers of hibernation from the institution of education, it dawned on me that I've continued to meet these demons with the same reactions, never gaining a continual peace from them. In fact, I suppose I've actually increased their strength and tentacles that wrap...

I’ve always been a firm believer of letting go of the past so that I can live in the present and positively impact and influence my future. At the same time, I’m a lover of history. I’m fascinated not in the facts and accounts of history as much as I’m fascinated in the human condition of history, good and bad, heroic and cowardly, righteous and evil. History is a rich mixture of who we are, where we came from, the errors of those who’ve walked before us, a recipe for success, and a road map of wisdom of what to avoid. When I think of history, both long ago and more recent, such names as Ronald Regan, Winston Churchill, Adolph Hitler, Gandhi, Alexander the Great, George (W and H) Bush, Al Capone, Billy Graham, John Lennon, Johnny Cash, George Patton, Carl Jung, and of course Janis Joplin, come to mind. Literally hundreds of names flood my mind when I think of history and even though I never knew any of these people, mentioned or floating in my brain, they have impacted my life, influe...

A man walked among the living wondering why he wasn’t living, where life got lost for him. He looked into the faces of the people he passed on the streets he walked in his life. He thought to himself that surely in one of these faces he would find the look that he seemed to have lost so long ago. His life seemed to be about making it through the day of his existence so that he could sleep at its end and begin the same day again yet on a different day. In his hopelessness, he didn’t realize that what he was looking for was just that, hope. The man looked for the why of his lack of joy and hope and never realized that in the search of the why he remained entrenched in the mire of the problems that continue to rob him and strip him naked in the pits of despair. Somewhere on the streets of his life he bought the lie that life is a problem and his goal is to continue to suffer in the birthing pains of life that it brings forth in our journey. He has forgotten that hope, love, and...

It’s funny how dogs can teach us how to be human. My little dog Charlie, who died last summer, was the best dog who ever called me friend. From the time she was a puppy, she had a need to be by our side. She enjoyed lying on the couch or bed, when we let her, body to body with her family. We were her pack and I believe in her mind, we were to always belong together. I miss my little Charlie and all the joy she brought to my family. Charlie understood what we humans are so soon to forget, that we belong in a pack. Charlie found her place and claimed us as her pack. We were not so much individuals to her as we were a family. Individuality is a wonderful thing, and as a somewhat reserved and solitude type of guy, I appreciate my individuality. At the same time, we were created, on the whole, to be social creatures, social in marriage, in family, extended and immediate, in work, and in our communities, again, both immediate and extended or global. As our culture has shifted from group i...