Everyone can tell you their story. Mine is simple. I sat at the Atlanta Bread Company at the second table from the door by the windows working on my daily plan. Then, a man I did not know approached my table ashen and trembling. "They hit the second building." I am sure you know what it is. Tomorrow is [...]
When I was a boy, I did something each spring that is almost unknown in today’s Xbox world. As I watched, caterpillars crawled out from under a leaf. That allowed me to witness a miracle. I ran into the house, found a Mason Jar (we always had Mason Jars!), and poked holes in the lid. When back outside, I found a stick [...]
We’ve lived through 15 months of lessons and tension. What have we learned on the other side of the pandemic? On April 18, 2020, I (naively) wrote an article called “Decisions, Decisions: What To Do When It Is Over? It described what I thought it would be like when the virus and its threat abated. I only missed the target [...]
The past year left us with a problem. What are we going to do now? Washington Irving wrote the story of a man who goes to sleep only to wake 20 years later. He discovered he missed so much, such as the American Revolution. He lived in a different world than the one he left. His name was Rip Van [...]
Scott Thompson's family has farmed the Wisconsin soil for over 70 years. He usually plants strawberries. Then, in the fall, he grows raspberries and pumpkins. This year, his crop looked different. He planted joy. You can't plant joy, but you can plant sunflowers. Thompson planted 22 acres of sunflowers. Thompson Strawberry Farm attracted families who picnic, wander fields of florals, and take [...]
In the 1860s, the merchant marine fleet of England suffered many losses. Ships sank in record numbers. Many sank in the harbor. It fell to Samuel Plimsoll, a young naval officer, to spot the problem. As long as a ship had space, cargo kept coming. Soon, the weight pushed the keel lower until it sank beneath the waterline. Plimsoll had the solution, [...]
All of us sit on a powderkeg of emotions. The worst of all is anger. Anger throws bricks through windows. It speeds up behind another driver, draws a gun, and starts shooting. It slaps a wife, batters children, and burns forests. It holds a keyboard as it types bitter all-cap letters into Twitter or Facebook. Harsh words wound. All are the results [...]
This final week of the year is my annual “review and preview” time. I look at what I have done and then top the hill to look at the year ahead. In the review of the year, one of the vital questions is: What one word or phrase best sums up and describes your experience this year? How would [...]
Our world is deaf. It is not from the inability to hear but the refusal to listen. Shouting. Name-calling. Interruptions. They are all signs of the times. The first presidential debate of 2020 put it onstage in living color. The candidates acted as if they were two third-graders shouting ridicule at each other on the school playground. (I apologize for the insult [...]
Is there a keeper of the spring in your life? Perhaps you need to heed the counsel of a Scottish preacher named Peter Marshall. Marshall had a gift. His Scottish brogue did more than enchant. It allowed him to communicate relevant ideas. His post-war generation was so different, yet so much the same as ours. “The Keeper of the Spring” became one [...]
