When the Trail Disappears It’s strange how quickly the world can vanish. One moment you’re following a well-marked trail, the crunch of gravel steady beneath your boots, the trees parting just enough to show the next turn. Then the fog […]
The Myth of Grit People often tell me I’m resilient. They mean it as a compliment. A nod to my ability to take the hits life has thrown and keep standing. For years, I wore that label like armor. I […]
The Myth of Arrival: The Hollow Wind on the Ridge From below, the summit gleams like salvation. The peak whispers its promises: just a little higher, just a little more effort, and life will finally feel complete. I’ve heard that […]
The Trailhead I remember road marches during my Army days at Fort Benning, Georgia. We’d start around 2 a.m., moving out under the stars into miles of wilderness; miles of forest thick with loblolly and longleaf pines. Often, the Division […]
The Winding Trail Life doesn’t always unfurl like a neatly drawn map. The lines we sketch as children (graduate, build a career, marry, raise children, retire) rarely survive contact with the weather of reality. Instead, most of us find ourselves […]
I’ve spent nights in the mountains where the fire was my only anchor. The wind cut sharp, the dark pressed in, and no matter how close I pulled my sleeping bag around me, the cold stayed. But the flames gave […]
Freedom With Boundaries Shortly after the first wave of COVID-19, something unexpected happened in the wide-open spaces of America. The National Park Service began closing gates, not because the wilderness was unsafe, but because it had become too crowded. With […]
Reading the Sky of the Soul Every morning, I give my students a writing prompt. An invitation to explore the thoughts in their heads and the emotions in their hearts. These journals are private, theirs alone, a place where honesty […]
The Rope Between Us If you’ve ever stood at the base of a rock wall with a rope in your hands, you know the weight of responsibility. The climber ties in, checks the knots, and calls down the words that […]
The Canyon Isn’t Silent Grief is a canyon. Wide, but not quiet. Every sound, every memory, every doubt ricochets off the walls and returns in a different form. What starts as a whisper of sadness can come back as a […]
Page 1 of 4
About Me
