Category: Personal Essays
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Believing is Seeing
She asked me a question I couldn’t answer. Not quickly, anyway. “Why follow the rules when rich folks don’t?” Gloria deserved better than a bumper sticker. So I tried.
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Love Pursues
Our truck slid off a jungle bridge, plunging us into the river. Tires blew. But the frame? It held. Our story doesn’t start at the bridge. Find out more. Read Love Pursues. Five Minute Observations.
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Acceptance
You either accept or quit. I had to accept I might never love again. Then I stopped fighting. This is the result.
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Different Lenses
Show up. It costs less than five minutes. Or maybe you get a cold shoulder, or a fabulous meal. Whatever you get, it’s always worth it to show up.
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Zero Agenda
A possum showed up to our 2 o’clock. Nobody scheduled him. Nobody asked him to leave. And for one ridiculous moment, nobody cared about Q3. That was fine, too.
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Showing Up
Writing is a lonely business. Alissa knows. That’s why she pulled me toward the table. Because she knows me.
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Love Out Loud
There’s a phrase I keep hearing lately. It sounds generous. Open-handed. Every once in a while, it is.
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It Can’t Rain All The Time
The sky opened up. I had ten minutes and no cover. Alissa was on her way. Her phone wasn’t.
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Conspiracy Theory #396: The Roundabouts
I am NOT a conspiracy theorist. But Jackson has a new roundabout, and I can’t remember what used to be there. Help me out.
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One Page Turned Into a Week of Saying ‘I Like You’
1980s. New kid. A girlfriend with a binder full of hearts, a Mormon friend, a Coke machine full of Pepsi, and one simple request: write me a real note. I should have known better than to start.
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Conspiracy Theory #381: Cheetos Trucks
I’ve seen it more than once. More than twice. And now I have questions no one seems able to answer.
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Free. But Clueless.
We were free. Gone for hours at a time, no cell phone to track us — nothing more than a curfew and a number where we might be reached.
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Wrong! Do It Again!
R-rated movies in the 1980s. A scathing TV news interview. And a few GenX kids. Seriously. We knew what was up.
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Hidden Treasures
Two kids on the floor of a San Francisco aisle. A movie that made Harrison Ford a superstar. And twenty posters that were never supposed to exist.
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Saying Goodbye. Saying Yes.
A Sunday drive. One last goodbye before leaving for Michigan. Turns out a grandbaby has more pull than the Pacific.
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I Blame Byrne
It’s all Byrne’s fault. Him and Stephen Colbert. Alissa actually watched it with me. It was as bad as I remembered it was.
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Like Friends Do
A chance run-in at Stoneridge Mall. A blue VW Bug. A smoky apartment and a Nintendo nobody would turn off. Sometimes showing up for a friend is reason enough.
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Knowing It Will
“You blow it and watch it drift, hoping it doesn’t pop. But you watch anyway, knowing it will.” Some moments you hold on to.