mood: thoughtful music: Vienna Teng - Eric's Song

Dear Grandma,

When I made plans to come back to Iowa for Christmas break, I had an a list in my head of everyone I wanted to see. My best friend Brian, my sister, my parents. Everyone that I had done life with over the past twenty-three year...

Read More

or (Christmas, part three)

To say that it was difficult to see my grandfather old, toothless, and frail there on a hospital bed would be inaccurate. At some level, I realize that life is temporary, fleeting, ephemeral. Difficult implies an inability to accept, or that this turn of events was s...

Read More

or (Christmas, part one)

How do you want to die?

One

The small room smelled of urine and industrial antiseptics. The walls were painted a light blue, not there was was much light to see the colors by. A wavering line danced up and down on the screen, tracing its irregular path. Steady beepin...

Read More

or (Christmas, part two)

"Excuse me, sir, do you have the time?"

I glanced up from my lighting console. A young girl - maybe eight or nine years old - stood in front of me. I was in the church auditorium getting ready for a big worship service that Celebrate Recovery was putting on. I glanced at...

Read More

The season 'tis upon us again. The season of rampant consumerism, family feuding and driving (or flying) hundreds of miles to see relatives that you don't really remember and probably could do without seeing.

Here it is no more than a few days after Thanksgiving (at the time of this writing) and t...

Read More