Sketching angels that are bigger than life
Ah, the clean slate of a new year. Fresh off the Christmas holiday, we’re feeling good about ourselves. Time to activate on the new year’s resolutions. Weight loss? Exercise? Quitting that bad habit? Nah, let’s not bother with the small stuff. Let’s go big. “Seek first his Kingdom and his righteousness and all these things […]
Order in Chaos: can’t you see it?
As I look down this tunnel of books packed floor to ceiling, I hear… du-doo, du-doo, du-doo, du-doo. I am pretty sure Rod Serling is about to tell me I have crossed over into … “The Twilight zone.” I am standing in the back of a small bookstore in Lake Junaluska, NC. On entering, I […]
What is life? Any puppy can show you
Are you alive? How can you tell? Frederic Martini, the author of my Anatomy and Physiology textbook, says that, “though the world around us contains an enormous diversity of living organisms that vary widely in appearance and lifestyle … biologists have found that all living things share certain basic characteristics.” These include: Responsiveness Growth and […]
Droopy but so not dead
I chose church over soccer this Sunday, and the show went on without me. Apparently, it was quite a physical affair, the Reston team persevering in the end by a 4-1 final score. My daughter Olivia scored one of the goals, so she says, and assisted on two of the others. But what she’s most […]
Sound Cancellation Magic and Mystery
Close your eyes and what do you see? Pin your nose and what do you smell? Shut your mouth and what do you taste? Cover your skin and what do you feel? Hold your ears and… you still hear what you heard before, just a bit quieter. I can’t shut out sound like I can […]
When life throws you change-ups
Routine, are you friend or foe? How I do love to know what to do and when to do it. That feeling of confidence when, like clockwork, this ticks so that tocks. The alarm goes off at 5:45. The morning coffee. The paper. The blog post. The conference call. The lunch hour. The 5:00 rush […]
Where is the line between heaven and earth?
Where is the line between heaven and earth? When people pass, what do they pass? Where do they cross from here to there? If we’re headed toward something, shouldn’t we see it so we’ll know when we get there? I see you…. you line on the horizon. But you are fickle. Yes, as the sun […]
It’s true!!
What if someone knocked on your door with the news that your life’s work, everything you believed to be true, was confirmed? Would you let him in to show you the evidence? The young scientist who has discovered the first tremors of the Big Bang – a light wave pattern which is evidence of gravitational […]
Nature leaves no doubt
Why is it that when I look at nature – in its perfect synchrony, perfect rhythm, perfect spacing, incomprehensible power, miraculous gentility – I am startled into silence and awe and moved to tears? Captain Dave Anderson and his wife, obviously at great personal risk, witnessed and photographed these astounding moments. I know you will […]
Neglecting the weak disables the strong
Run, shoot, pass, dribble, score. Repeat and repeat, calling on the same muscles to do all the work. Do the same the next day, next practice, next game. It seems a reasonable plan for training and improvement. Just keep doing it until we get it right, right? Well, no. Because each movement is not just […]