I get up and walk downstairs to our kitchen to pour myself a cold glass of milk. I sit down at the kitchen table, the only light coming from a street light outside our house, and take a sip. I can’t sleep. My mind is racing with a million thoughts. Crying baby girl In the... Continue Reading →
A walk in the park
The ground is wet. I see that it rained the night before, but the sun is out and will burn-off the two or three puddles that I see along the trail in no time. We’ve taken a small handful of steps, but I can see already that my wife’s pace is brisk and determined and... Continue Reading →
A painful experience
My wife looked at me, but said nothing. Her hand, the one without the IV tubes, gripped mine like her life depended on it. The labor pains took their sweet time, but were now coming at a steady pace. We were having our first child and I was doing my best to try to help... Continue Reading →
Worst case scenario
I’m dressed in rags and I look pale and haggard like I haven’t eaten or gotten a good night's sleep in weeks. My wife has left me. My kids have turned their back on me. I’m homeless and wandering aimlessly through town. Of course, I’m playing out this sad scenario in my mind. In reality,... Continue Reading →
The moments in my life that I’ve been at my best as a father
I gulped down the last of my coffee. It was late in the day for me to be drinking coffee, but I had worked a full ten-hour day and still had five hours in the car until I reached my daughter’s campus. We’d probably grab some fast-food and then start our drive back home. My... Continue Reading →
Bigger, better, stronger
When I was a gawky kid, whenever I brought home my report card, if I had a B, I immediately wanted a A. If I had a A, I wanted an A-plus. When I ran cross country in high school, if I cut 15 seconds off my 5k time, I wanted to run the exact... Continue Reading →
Learning from failure
The teacher walked up and down the aisle handing out magic markers and brightly colored folders like you might find at an office supply store. I got a red one, the girl in front of me got an orange one. It was the first day of school, I was starting the sixth grade, and, of... Continue Reading →
Speechless
When an African-American friend of mine after the Ahmaud Arbery shooting in February said he worried about running outside, I wasn’t sure what to say. Arbery, an unarmed 25-year-old, was fatally shot near Brunswick, Georgia, when he went out for a jog and was pursued by two white men. I tried to find the right... Continue Reading →
A letter to a former teacher: Pulling me back from the ledge
When I was 11, my basketball coach, who wasn’t much older than my teammates and I, walked the sideline of the small town community hall where we played, yelling and throwing his hands up in the air when we made a mistake or he disagreed with the referee's call. A few years later when I... Continue Reading →

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