I hear my wife on her Google Classroom call and she’s bursting with excitement. She’s giddy over one of her kids completing a simple math question. She raises her voice and yells out so everyone can hear, “You did it.” And then there’s me. I’m on a Microsoft Teams call and someone accidentally mutes their …
Tag: calm
Giving thanks
I took a break from working the other day to look out the window. The street was empty, everyone quarantined in their homes. I couldn’t help but think about the year we’ve had. If I had looked at the street one year ago, I would have expected to see people out-and-about, going on with their …
Here comes the sun!
The dew shimmered like little diamonds as the grass caught the early morning sun. For the briefest of moments, I considered stepping out of my car and running my hands across the ground since the "diamonds" looked big enough to sweep up into my bare hands. I had driven my wife to an early morning …
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 …
Rinse and repeat
The sun comes up, the sun goes down. Rinse and repeat. Rinse and repeat again. I’ve been waiting for some news on a couple of fronts. As much as I want answers though, life has a way of getting in the way and making me wait. I think it's that way for most people. Life …
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 …
A frank look at white privilege
I remember the first time I heard the term “white privilege.” Oh, the African American student who yelled it at me, didn’t use the actual term white privilege, it wasn’t a word that you heard all that much back then, but his point was still the same. It was a chilly spring day, but the …
Take me home country roads
I can sense it coming. The feeling starts out like a distant ache. I’ll push it back to the back of my mind in the hopes that it will go away. My attempt to keep my focus to “the here and now” will work for a while, but the feeling will soon come back. This …
A perfect day
The coffee was weak, my toast was burnt, and my omelet tasted bland. My wife’s breakfast wasn’t much better—her crêpes looked soggy and lumpy. That’s not all. The restaurant was loud and had a strange echo and a cold breeze shook me every time a customer opened the door. Despite the food and the surroundings, …
Expecto Patronum
Indigenous cultures occasionally focus on spirit animals who help guide and direct them during times of trouble. It’s not just the native cultures, but modern day fiction too. In J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World of Magic, Harry Potter’s Patronus charm takes the shape of a stag, just like his father. Wizards use the spell as protection in …
