• The old joke states, “Never ask God for patience because He’ll give you opportunities to practice.” We laugh because it’s true. That’s the comedy. The tragedy is when we follow this terrible advice. I mean, it would be ridiculous to say, “Don’t tell a trainer you want to build muscle, because he might start asking […]

  • It was like driving through a sea of black ink. The trip back to our hotel from the Lamar Valley was harrowing. It being Yellowstone, the specter of animals hanging out on the road is always a possibility. We’d reveled in the wildlife of the North American Serengeti, but now the sun was gone and […]

  • This painting is called “Love is in the Air.” Our eyes draw us to the billowing steam from the geyser forming the shape of a heart. Indeed, it is a fitting representation of the way most of our society views love. Like the steam, it is a little mysterious, always changing, and dependent on which […]

  • Do elk have the choice of being a morning person? Are there some elk, hidden away in the woods, “sleeping in?” Some who stayed up late contemplating the universe, or were up all night partying with other woodland creatures? Alas, I assume that elk are wired the way they are wired, and they don’t have […]

  • Our family didn’t go to Yellowstone to see moose, specifically. We went for the scenery, and we did want to see as much wildlife as possible. One afternoon, we settled into a nice spot in the shadow of the Grand Tetons called Schwabacher Landing, and waited for moose. We’d heard the odds of seeing them […]

  • One of the most memorable lines in the movie The Princess Bride is, “As you wish.” At the start of the movie, we learn that the beautiful Buttercup has a farmhand named Westley, whom she bosses around. To each of her requests, Westley responds, “As you wish.”  Later on, when Buttercup pushes Dread Pirate Roberts […]

  • Sometimes my wife hears “whispers” in her prayer time. As her husband, I have learned that going along for the ride is usually the wisest course of action. Recently she felt called to dedicate our home to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. I couldn’t imagine any argument against it, even though I wasn’t clear on […]

  • Have you ever texted someone a question and then those three little dots pop up as they formulate their reply?  You know the three dots. Depending on how consequential their response is, that delay can feel like an eternity, right? We want answers now, but sometimes they take a while to come. From the very […]

  • I received an email from a reader who told me about the restorative benefits of a recent vacation in which she mostly stayed home and didn’t “do anything newsworthy.” How often to we fall into the trap of thinking we always have to be doing something newsworthy? Our culture and social media feeds implore us […]

  • I recently came across this in my photo stream. Part photo, part iPad drawing, it’s my original vision of the art studio I wanted to build as an addition to our home. This was exactly what I wanted; a little extra light-filled space added on to the home office already there. If I could have […]

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