Here I am again. Starting another empty volume. Sitting, drinking coffee. Wondering what will become of my life. - July 19, 2003 This post is part 2 in a series entitled Symbols of Redemption. For part 1, click here. For part 2, click here. On July 19, 2003, I began my eleventh journal with the words above. “Here I am again.” They were words of recognition… “Starting another empty volume.” … of repetition… “Sitting, drinking coffee.” … tied to a dream of being a writer in a noisy... Read Full Story

Several days ago, Sarah and I were talking about blogging and reading and the Kindle1 when the topic of this series of posts came up and she said, “So, are you planning on doing that post every week?” I said that I had planned on completing this post every week. “For how long?” “Until I have read everything on my list,” I replied. “Oh, okay.” “Why do you ask?” “I just wonder if you need to update everyone on your reading list progress every week. I like reading your real posts better.” I... Read Full Story

Did you see my May Poetic License entry from last week? Did you see the comments? If not, you missed out. The Clerihew theme inspired some family contributions right in the comment section. But fear not, because I’m going to post them all right here for your enjoyment. After you’ve read them, drop a comment here recognizing the poetic stylings of my family. First, my beautiful and amazing wife Sarah posted not one but two poems, which she claimed were conceived while we were running yesterday... Read Full Story

“Who is sure of their own motives can in confidence advance or retreat.” - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe I could have done without the teeth-chattering, the almost constant rain and the back-breaking hike needed to get to this place. But I’d come this far just to see it, so there was no point in turning back now. Holy Cross Wilderness. Named so because the primary peak in this Colorado wilderness area had a deep, cross-like scar cut right into its face. From what I’d heard, the peak was... Read Full Story

Want this button? To quote Public Enemy: “Once again, back is the incredible.” That’s right, it’s time once again for Pensieve’s Poetic License, the monthly poetry carnival designed to stretch one’s creaky poetic muscles. This month, not only is the form one I’ve never done before, but I’ve never even heard of it. Clerihew, named in honor of Edmund Clerihew Bentley, who is said to have written the the first poem of this form. They should have called it the Bentley, but I guess... Read Full Story

This post is part 2 in a series entitled Symbols of Redemption. For part 1, click here. Last week, in part one of this series, I talked about my many incomplete journals. I admitted that I’m pretty good about coming up with new ideas and starting new things, but that I often have trouble carrying those ideas to completion. Because this is so much a part of my personality, my journals became symbols of incompleteness beyond the blank pages themselves. They were symbols of brokenness, a lack... Read Full Story

Ever wonder what I look like while writing for two hours each morning? No? Well never-mind that. Check it. A few days ago, Carlos at Ragamuffin Soul posted a time-lapse video of his work-day. Check it out if you haven’t already. He does so great videos. After seeing the video, I noticed that Carlos used a program called iStopMotion to create the video. Since that’s a program I also have, there’s no way I wasn’t going to try this out myself. The concept is pretty simple: iStopMotion uses the... Read Full Story

So I have another post up on the Compassion blog. It’s called Maybe Next Time, a Smile, and you can find it here. An excerpt: I stood in the courtyard playground of that child development center in Bonao, hours outside of Santo Domingo and less than a day after arriving in the Dominican Republic (DR), and the sun’s heat felt more like that given off by an interrogation lamp than life-giving warmth. Why was I really here anyway? Teasers only here, gotta go to the site to read the rest. When... Read Full Story

I have journals. Lots of them. Mostly in a pile on top of the bookcase in my office. Of course, you already know I have journals. I’m certain I’ve mentioned this before. But what you don’t know is that none of these journals are full. Except for one. But we’ll get to that. The rest of my journals have almost as many blank pages as full ones. Some are more empty than full. Many of them overlap in time, like my first journal (which has dated entries from January, 1996 to December... Read Full Story

A little under two weeks ago, I wrote about rejection. Mostly around a rejection notice for a short story I’d received the day before. The real theme of the post, I suppose, was to accept rejection, learn from it, and move on. To not be defined by it. Looking back on that now as a wiser, two-week-older person, I think that what I was trying to remind myself1 was that the presence of a rejection letter in my writing life doesn’t, in any way, change my writing ability from one moment to the... Read Full Story