Survivorship is Not a Phase | Part III
“As we approach the eighth #PowderedDonutDay, this coming Sunday, Father’s Day, I am beginning to realize that Maureen wants me to architect a new skyline. Her love will permeate every aspect of my blueprints for the future. I am a survivor, and I am no longer afraid.” I wrote...
I Have Been Provoked | 7.31, 10.21, and MBC
14 Years. Except for the year of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf in 2010 and Hurricane Ivan in 2004, we’ve been to Ft. Morgan, Alabama each and every year. We started going to this beach in 2003, the year of my bride, Maureen’s, mom and dad’s...
I Have Been Provoked | St. Peregrine, Peculiarities, and Time Loops
“I am stronger than lymphoma.” Those few simple words on a friend’s Facebook page over the holidays said it all. Just a few short weeks ago, that same friend and I were having lunch at Cured in San Antonio during the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium. I had driven...
I Have Been Provoked | Putting the Gloves Back On
It is a cool and beautiful morning in Austin, Texas. I am sitting at my favorite coffee shop, Teo’s. As I drove into town with my youngest daughter, the light was crisp. It had the orange hues of the approaching fall. As the sun came up, you could see...
I Have Been Provoked | David Bowie’s Heroes & CLOUD
1983. September. Freshman year at Northwestern. Although I joined a residential college at Northwestern University, rather than a fraternity, I still remember heading to the rush parties. My dorm room was in the fraternity quad, so the music was going to keep me awake anyway… may as well dance…...
Embracing Uncertainty | What is Our Wild?
You know that feeling. The feeling you get when you turn the page, and there is nothing on the next one. Or perhaps, that moment when you reach a fold in a map where the trail ends (of course, the paper ones before smart phones made them electronic). Or...
My Mom | A Letter From Her Son, Taylor
Mom, We still have so much to talk about. I still have so much to ask you. You still have so much to teach me beyond the love, strength, grace, and compassion you demonstrated every day. I want to go back to the day. October 19th. Two days before...
The Love of My Life | “You Will Never Know a Love Like Mine”
It was Friday night. 2 weeks ago. In San Antonio. Taylor, Kyla, Katelyn and I had just made the drive down 281 from Austin for a weekend in the Hill Country. We had settled into our hotel, and I had popped down to the corner Walgreens, along the Riverwalk,...
My Mom | Reflections by Her Loving Son, Taylor
“Blessed By Angels Unawares” | Hebrews 13:2 When I was fifteen, I lost my mom to breast cancer. The day was October twenty first, and I was sitting on the left side of the library at the table near the window. As I was confirming my fantasy football lineup,...
Love, Powdered Donuts, Dragons and Dragonflies | Changing How We See
“We each carry within us our own dragon.” As I sat with my dear friend, Martin Kohout, over a drink this summer, these words didn’t just resonate at that moment, but they have been tickling my soul for weeks. As fellow parishioners, Heather Kohout said so many things over...