Daily Life Dreaming...

As I prepare for his first visit to my hometown, I’ve been looking at the city I live in with new eyes.  I have my favorite haunts, of course, like my favorite deli (Bagel Boyz), favorite sushi place (Suzushi), and ethnic hole-in-the-wall (Istanbul Grill).  But I’ve also been looking at...

The Time Creep...

I flew into Knoxville on Tuesday and back to Dallas on Thursday.  It gave us the opportunity to share two dinners and two breakfasts.  It gave us the opportunity to sit in the same room and breathe the same air.  It gave us the opportunity to laugh together over four episodes of King of the Hill. ...

11:40 Tuesday Bliss...

Rocky the golden cat sits snoozing on the absolute edge of my desk, his old, battered face nodding momentarily, then coming abruptly awake to stare at the buzz of an insect or the yammer of another cat. On television, Stewie Griffin writes his memoirs, blaming a man dressed in white for all his ills;...

On Merging Our Libraries...

I called him with a seemingly innocent question:  “Do you like Abraham Lincoln?”  He expounded upon the reasons that he loves and admires Lincoln, and then got around to asking me why I had asked. “I’m sorting through books, and wondered if you would mind if I put all my Lincoln...

Illumination: Artificial and Natural...

Often, on nights spent in the mountains here in Eastern Tennessee, I’ve stared up at the sky and wondered what the experience must have been like for Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett, two of the first white men to explore the area at a time when Cherokee villages were the only dots of civilization...

Comfort Food...

The distance between us has led me to discover a new love for comfort foods.  Megan, one of the ATG Columnists recently wrote about food that heals, and I well understand in both times of loss and times of joy how food is a comfort.  The actual act of cooking is also comforting:  to be able to take...

Run...

As our relationship grows more profound, I have increasing difficulty writing about it. It’s easy to be glib when there is nothing more than the ante on the table, much harder when the stakes are considerably higher. There are times now when I look at you and my tongue literally sticks to the...

Autumn...

There is a trace of autumn in the air here in Texas. To be honest, there isn’t much to the seasonal changes here.    One day, it’s 99 degrees and green with brown patches (due to the heat) and the next day it’s 60 degrees and brown with green patches.   We have two big seasons: ...

Sunday Mornings...

I love Sunday. It’s a day of rest as well as a spiritual day.   I spend some time in prayer and meditation.  I try to spend some time doing creative things.  I rarely do client work.  Even when I am traveling, I try to block out at least the morning to worship, savor breakfast and leisurely...

Breakfasting...

I am not a morning person. I’m much better at night. Unless I’m on a deadline, you’ll rarely find me out of bed before 9 a.m. — and then only because I’m a stickler about taking morning meds at the same time every day. When the cheerful old sun peeks over the horizon at...