Playing to win a game we all know we will lose: It’s the game that makes winners of us

I just love to compete! folks say to me, pretty much never. I’m not the competitive type, they say, pretty much always. And then they cut each other off in conversation. One-up each other in accomplishments. Go off about something on Facebook. Cannot believe that offending patron! Swerve around that maniac who is texting while driving. While on the […]

The Body Doesn’t Lie

What good is a body? Its senses offer awareness.Its movements exercise connectedness. Its behavior shows what it is thinking.Its responsiveness proves its attention.Its spontaneity, a display of flexibility.Its skill, evidence of its teaching. Its performance shows that it has practiced.Its coordination calls on its balance.Its competence demonstrates its consistency.Its record shows its preparation. A body grows when it […]

Firm Outside, Flexible Inside

Inflexible, rigid, immovable, carved in stone…There’s a place for these, but in me is not that place. I’m meant to give. My body says so. I’m meant to be flexible, able to bend against the storms of life and not snap. I’m meant to be supple, easily folded, twisted and worked into shape. I’m meant to be […]

Use it or Lose It, It’s Biblical!

Use it or lose it! We didn’t invent the phrase. It’s been around for generations, maybe for millenia. My Grandfather, though I never knew him to lift a weight or go for a jog, applies the adage to a quite familiar, but hard to swallow, parable which concludes… I tell you, to all those who have, […]

Running Twice as Fast Will Never Get you Here

Ah fiction. It has so much truth to tell… They were running hand in hand, and the Queen went so fast that it was all Alice could do to keep up with her: and still the Queen kept crying “Faster! Faster!”… The most curious part of the thing was, that … however fast they went, […]

A Monkey Bar Faith

We let go of Mommy’s hand to enter pre-school.We let go of Daddy’s hug to board the bus.We let go of our beloved teacher’s smileonly to do it again next year because we must. We let go of the hand of the principalas she wishes us well on our way.We let go of our first […]

The Hurrieder I go, the Behinder I get

That phrase, from a poster on my high school bedroom wall, is haunting me today. Not because time has passed, but because it hasn’t seemed to. It’s even more true today than it was back then, and it has me wondering whether I am making any headway. Speed breeds errors. Which mean do-overs. Which take time. […]

Six Perfect Words: I Just Love to Watch You Play

“I just love to watch you play.” (okay technically seven) These are the six simple words I would like to tell my kids after every game, every performance, and every event. It’s the one thing I want them to know, and it’s been this way since…well, forever. I remember my delight at watching them find […]

Love Strong

If we love with heart, soul and mind, is that enough? What about strength? The Pharisees tested Jesus asking, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And […]

Gate by Gate: Navigating the Slalom Course of Life

Sometimes you just have to do things in order. First things first. No exceptions. Oh, I want to put things behind me and just “get on with it.” But life is not a ‘now we join our regularly scheduled program, already in progress’ experience. Stuff happens. Sometimes it is big stuff, and we need to put […]