A friend of mine recently spent a few days in the hospital.
He’s fine now, but a few weeks ago he just started feeling dizzy out of nowhere, and kind of weird like he couldn’t see straight. He tried to shrug it off like it was no big deal, and kept working, but within a few hours he was getting worse. Finally, by that night, he asked his wife to drive him to the hospital.
He told me later he actually thought [...]
I am finding that the older I get, the less I need to say.
It’s not that I don’t have thoughts about things. I have plenty of them. But these days as I edge toward my sixth decade, many of those thoughts simply do not need to be expressed. Most of my [...]
Something funny happens when you write books and a lot of people read them. Life gets strange. Really strange. You start having conversations with people who feel like they know you but they also know they don’t, so they just look at you and are slightly confused but don’t know why. I really want to figure out something to do in those moments because I never know what to do either. I might start singing, or just hold their hand and stare into their eyes. Not sure.
The thing that was the hardest to get used to, though, and I swear it’s true, is that when you have any kind of notoriety people honestly feel like they have the right to be mean to you. Seriously. They will write a blog or a tweet and twist your words around or take your ideas to an extreme to make them look stupid and then call you stupid. And that’s fine and that’s not a problem because we all went through that in junior high, but the no fun part is [...]
Well, about two minutes in just prepare to get choked up.
Happy Father’s Day, guys! Without you hundreds of millions of women would still be searching for something, hundreds of millions of kids would be without a role model, millions would still be wondering what love is, what strength is, and what God is like. There are few stories better than the story a dad lives out with and for his wife and kids. We celebrate you today! [...]
Last week, Olivia and her poetry won by only 3 votes over the cymbal mishap. And for this week, we celebrate dads. Which of these is your favorite? [...]
The day he was born, I walked outside with my tools and began to dig. I wasn’t sure why I was digging. I simply knew I must break into the hard ground to make it something it was not.
I wasn’t digging a hole. Rather I was preparing a smooth surface, free from obstacles, small and large. Daily I tore into the ground, breaking rocks into small pieces, cutting down trees, and tearing out roots that would find their way to the surface again. Sometimes my boy would work alongside me, not knowing what we were building or why, but glad to be with me and a part of the task.
I don’t remember the day [...]
I used to think I was a generous person. Then, I met my husband.
At our wedding, his best friend pulled me aside and told me a few things he thought I should know about Darrell before we were married. One of them was, “He will give anything to anyone. He’ll give the shirt off his back. He is the most generous person you will ever meet.”
Sure enough, in our first [...]
When I first started writing I made the mistake of thinking I should be descriptive. I’d envision every scene and describe things, the trees as tall as flag poles, the wind coming across the field like music and all that flowery like this and like that. But in truth, many of the great writers don’t describe much at all. It’s true you’ll read Fitzgerald or Steinbeck and feel like you are in the scene, but when you take a second look at the description, there isn’t a whole lot there.
Instead of adjectives, great writers often use verbs. Their characters do, and they are always doing. In this example from Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, a Mother and Father have recently [...]
Most founders don’t want to talk about it. Many founders aren’t even aware of it. But all founders will be susceptible to it at some point in time. It is a condition that has been appropriately, though somewhat painfully termed, Founder’s Syndrome. It is a difficult condition for all involved parties, especially if everyone but the founder knows that it exists.
I am a Founder’s Syndrome survivor. I have fought internal and external battles to ensure that I overcome it. It is not a favorable condition, and it is not an easy one to admit having, nor to be cured of.
I don’t have children, but I have birthed a vision into the world to empower communities to work together against the HIV/AIDS and water crises in Africa. Since the age of 21, I have poured everything, and I mean everything, that I had into ensuring that the vision could become a reality. It was a 24/7 kind of job that [...]
I’m not a CEO type, but I run a little company. I’m not efficient, but I get things done. I’m an artist living in the world of people who dot every “i” and cross every “t” and take pride in their ability to get things done.
I’ve read a few books on becoming more efficient, but they all read like Greek to me. I’m not a linear thinker. I’m not going to create an elaborate filing system.
All I want to do in my professional life is [...]
