You introduce an input into a function to get an output. If you want to change the output, you can either change the function or the input. In life, what should we change? The function or the input? In life, neither is particularly certain. Here I am. Here’s where I want to go. What do…

The key to getting the work done – and the work done well – is consistency. Showing up every day. Or every other day. But at what point does the “not quite every day” begin to erode to where it is no longer doing what it is supposed to. I am trying to blog every…

Call and response. The sound of me responding to the early morning alarm. Dreams interrupted. Darkness greeting me. The dog ready to go (only to be asleep again in half an hour). I love the productivity of mornings but not the whip of the alarm. I dread that time of the year when the days…

Fact is if you train long enough, or do anything long enough, including writing, you are going to have one of these days. More than likely you will have several of these days. At first, this day will appear like any other day really. Stretching and chatting with team mates before class, breezing through the…

Is it the world’s oldest story? Rags to riches… …to asshole. At what point does the dream shift from art to ego? Or a suitcase full of cash? Our culture has become one of celebrating the sell outs, those who posture and pose, those who swagger and swear, to reach the ultimate goal: the payout.…

There’s this concept in exercise called Greasing the Groove. Let’s say you want to do 10 pull ups. But you can’t. How do you approach getting to that goal of 10 pull ups. One approach is the steady linear approach. Over time, you start with what you can say a set of 5 pull ups,…

Instead of spending my early mornings putting down a thousand words per day on a story, I am stuck on two words. Two damned words. The title of my upcoming fantasy book. Two words should be easy. Right? After all it’s only two freaking words. This is the third day in a row of combinations…

Website slow loading. Waiting on hold. But also, more importantly, a few words shared. Common ideas that bridge the divide between you and me. As artists, we are in our heads, our bodies forgotten, except when unwinding from tortured positions. But we can connect. Because even if our struggles are different, they are the same.…

Between what we are and what we want to become. That is the essence of a meaningful life. But that is not where it stops. What matters is how we carry ourselves between here and there. Especially when failure and setback fills that space between.

Show up. Do the work. Don’t worry about the outcome. Love the process. Connect with others.

There’s a certain tension between comfort and fear. It’s there for a reason. After all, some of the online success profits are identifying a fear and then using that to get you to buy something that they are selling. They are selling the idea of freedom, or at least, opening with those cards. Is it…

Missing the slap and pound of waves at night. The hiss of the wind through the palm fronds. The morning bird song. And the call of the gecko hunting in the night.

One of my favorite quotations is “Chaos is the law of nature; order, the dream of man,” by Henry Adams. As much as we try to hold things together, chaos will come in to claim its territory. This American Dream is descending into chaos. Maybe it was destined to, a false promise made to appease,…

Imagining slipping into another place is deceptive. Visiting is the easy thing. Swaying palm trees, the roll and pound of the surf, the beckoning song of the birds. But after that you begin thinking. Work, traffic, bills. Too many tourists. Graffiti. “Tip your slaves.” “Welcome to plastic Maui.” Still more rainbows here than at home,…

We need patterns. They allow us to make sense of chaos. They allow us to create pathways. By recognizing patterns we find efficiency. But a pattern can become a prison. A pattern created around an injury becomes a limp or a frozen shoulder or tight neck. A pattern to find ease in living works for…

What if all these selfies the kids are taking simply means they are smiling more than our generation did?

Staring at the sea, more blues than I have words to name. Endless seas of blues. The endless unnameable always there if we look.

Boredom has been given a bad rap. No distractions. No screens. No madly planned days. If your kid tells you that they are bored then you are on the right track. But don’t be tempted to give them something to fill up that space. You could give them problems to solve, or a task to…

When is a writing project ever done? What I thought was completed months ago had been edited, polished, and submitted it off to agents. Since then, I changed the ending of the story, further cleaned up the text, and added in a number of new scenes. Now it feels complete. But if I look at…

Not a real medical condition. But one that arrives every time before I travel. What books should I bring? How many books? Am I bringing enough books?