Shortcuts
We weren’t going anywhere. Stuck sitting in a Thursday morning traffic jam is not a fun thing when you have places to go and people to meet. That’s probably what prompted the white pickup truck behind me to finally pull off the road and begin making his way brashly through the closed-down construction of the […]
Spillage
She was only trying to help. I smiled at the girl behind the counter at the cafe as she filled up my sun-colored mug with fresh, black coffee. Everything looked fine at first, the hot liquid steaming from the mug, delightful aroma filling the air, and she was quite generous with the portion. It looked […]
Small Pleasures
The World Market food section is a lovely place for the senses. I am walking through a cornucopia of brightly colored packages of marzipan and imported biscotti, surrounded by the scent of exotic teas and coffees from other lands. All of a sudden, my senses dim and center on a single package, the other trinkets […]
Praying WITH God
I am surrounded by water. A sky of cobalt is above me, rays of morning sun stream through the space between downtown high rises, and all around this concrete jetty are the black lapping waves of the Caloosahatchee River. A cool breeze nudges the tinkling wind chimes on the deck of a nearby boat as […]
Language (dis)connection
All around me are people, squished and squeezed and packed in tightly, seat by seat, row by row, waiting for takeoff. The woman next to me looks so lost, like she’s frightened a bit and just wishing the trip was over. It seems she knows no English, and I am struck by how my own […]
Small town snapshots
Small to mid-sized towns have a certain charm about them. Perhaps it’s the sense of homey community, or the feeling of history behind each landmark. With big cities, it’s easy to get so focused on the new things and the energy of mass population that you lose sight of the place itself. Not so with the small town. […]
Fishes in the Sky
I’m sitting in a straight-back chair with a fastened safety belt, 35,000 feet up on a hot summer day. All around me are clouds; the white, puffy, cotton-ball clouds that give young imaginations the best fodder you could ask for. I remember clouds like this from summer afternoons as a boy; from long, hot, lazy […]
Living in the mystery
Confession time: I’m an analyzer. Ok, make that an over-analyzer. I am the type that has a deep drive to take every fact or experience and try to fit it into a category or framework; some sort of structure to show me what it all means. It’s the never-ending push to understand, to know, that […]
Who I Really Am
It’s 2:00am on the morning of American Idol auditions, and I am remembering who I really am, and I’m switching my audition song… again. This will be the third time I’ve changed my main “audition song” in the past 24 hours. Mostly I’ve been thinking about what is a good fit for my voice, what […]
Almost there…
Only 5 hours to go before American Idol auditions begin! I’m not really nervous, just wanting to do my part to make this whole experience all that god wants it to be. Not so long ago it would have been my biggest dream to be a STAR, but now, truthfully… my biggest dreams are to […]
