Some days you just need reminders of hope more than others. In the darkest, deepest, most barren seasons, the slightest glimmer of hope can melt the coldest sensations of wandering, lost-ness, and despair. Hope comes like a snow peppered songbird proclaiming that spring is on the way. This voice of encouragement soars like a bird returning from its migratory season … Read More
The Art of Writing a Letter
I’ve written all sorts of letters throughout my life. Letters to my parents from camp, postcards with short letters to my grandparents from vacations, entries in my diaries, cards filled with letters of encouragement to those having a bad day or suffering in a particular way, emails with updates on life with pen pals and old friends, letters of complaint … Read More
How To Be More Interesting
I feel like I was a slacker in the reading department during 2013. In hindsight, I realize I started off rip-roaring through a lengthy biography on Daniel Boone, an awesome memoir by one of my former professors called, “Booked,” a Johnny Cash book, and a Dickens’ classic I had started a few months earlier. As a slow reader, I set … Read More
Noise Canceling Headphones for the New Year
I’m surrounded by voices inside and outside of my head. You are too. Sometimes it gets so noisy, the roars of discord make me want to just give up. I bet you’ve felt that way too. These voices just about drown a person who is attempting to doggy paddle to shore, because they can’t seem to get there for the … Read More
People Just Don’t Get It. But Immanuel Does.
Ever have one of those flustered days, weeks, months, years, or even what seems to be a life time of harried moments strung together by frayed nerves? Maybe it’s just me, but when I get in a tizzy, it often feels like no one “gets” why. Sometimes it’s unreasonable to expect people to be sensitive because they have no idea … Read More
The Kindness of a Stranger
You know what’s been on my mind lately? The kindness of strangers that I’ve experienced in my life. I can think of so many instances where people I had never formed a relationship with reached out with something that blessed me from the simplest to the most profound manner. The “Pay-It-Forward”/ “Random Acts of Kindness” movements that I’ve seen several … Read More