Sometimes you need to read the last chapter of a book first. I’m not talking about novels: that’s cheating and not nearly as much fun as trying to figure out what’s going to happen.   I’m talking about non-fiction books that tie all the loose ends together in the final chapter. If you don’t know ahead of time that everything was based on actual events, you might not bother finishing the book at   [Read More …]

By 9:00 a.m. it was already 80+ degrees and we were all drenched with sweat. It was our first day of work on the Jimmy Carter Blitz Build in LA, and there was no doubt it was going to be a hot one. All around me the sound of hammers rang out and saws sliced through the din of many voices as the walls went up. When I turned from the window frame I was blocking to find another 2 x 4, I saw our   [Read More …]

Last week I tried unsuccessfully to write about this topic but the focus wouldn’t come for me. Today is different. I went back to working on this on Martin Luther King Day and his life provided an extraordinary example of what it means to live fearlessly even when you are afraid. On December 10, 1964 King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. It does not go to people who tiptoe their way through   [Read More …]

The start of New Year’s Day began in an unplanned way for me. I couldn’t find the book I had anticipated reading with my morning coffee so I just picked up the next book in my “Read-This-Next-Pile.” It was Sightings: Extraordinary Encounters with Ordinary Birds. Obviously I expected that book to be about birds but it was far, far more for it was a series of meditations. By the time I had read the   [Read More …]

This isn’t the column I planned to write. What I had in mind was a simple list of my favorite quotes on giving with a few comments in between. It seemed like a good way to end one year and start another, but it wasn’t to be. I should have known once I started entertaining The Fear of Giving idea that nothing else would work, but I hung onto that plan until I pulled out my quotation file and   [Read More …]

The last two years our daughter’s birthday gift to her dad has been a day of fishing just for the two of them. That gift of time has been an opportunity for them to make memories together. “What is important to me,” our daughter told her dad, “is time to be with you.” If a 26-hour day is on your Christmas wish list, you won’t find that in your stocking or in a beautifully wrapped box under the   [Read More …]