Tag: Storytelling
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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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Nine of Spades
A card reading. A dead cigar. And a thirteen-year-old boy who didn’t believe in any of it — until Uncle Wade folded the silk and never touched the cards again.
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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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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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Death of a Taste Bud — Listen to Me
California Pizza Kitchen. Barbeque chicken. Cauliflower crust. Way, way too hot! One bite. One bump on my tongue. And a whole essay about being unseen. New on Five Minute Observations.
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The Dragon Remembers
The dragon never fought. Never growled. Never breathed fire after the first few weeks being tethered to the chain. That was the hardest part for the Keeper to explain. The Dragon Remembers. Five Minute Observations.
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Deserving of Walkout Music
Does anyone throw a party for staying? For quietly inconveniencing yourself when leaving made more sense? Nobody cues the walkout music for that. But they should.
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On Time
Would God really bring me halfway around the world to die in a foreign country? Find out today. Five Minute Observations.
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Worth Reading. Worth Hearing.
The algorithm rewards volume. And packaging. But what does it do with the craft? Here’s what I didn’t say in the comment box.
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What You Hear
One word changes everything. The four-day email thread wasn’t about grammar.
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I Knew His Face
I didn’t know his name. I knew his face. About a man at a round table, a string of numbers in blue ink, and the question I’m still asking about whether I got close enough.
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Writing That Happened
I read a faith column in Sunday’s paper. Three numbered points. Charlie Brown opener. A tidy bow at the end. And nowhere did the writer tell me what he was afraid of. New post on Five Minute Observations. What does showing up actually look like? Link in bio.
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Three Doors In
Three doors. A diner. A highway. A social media post. Three stories that have nothing in common, except me showing up, paying attention, and then getting out of the way. Which one stayed with you?
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You Almost Walk By
Most storytelling describes values. Incarnational storytelling makes you feel them before they’re named. The difference between an audience and a witness.
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Told It Gently
A budget meeting goes sideways. Words land like scalding coffee. Ten years later, everyone still remembers the room. What’s in the cave your words come from?
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Do You Remember When?
One flavor of Doritos. Three sizes of drinks. A show inside a show inside a memory. Yesterday’s break room conversation turned into something bigger.
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Invisible
I found a slide from my 8th-grade graduation. My classmates were smiling. I wasn’t. I didn’t ask why. Nobody else did either.
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His Older Brother
A California kid lands in rural Idaho. Snow, gravel roads, and a school bus full of kids he doesn’t know. One of them is Ray. Big. Farm bred. And looking for a fight. This is about one person who stepped between them, and why, more than thirty years later, he still can’t remember his name.