The Package Is Not Always The Problem
Somewhere along the way, food got loud. One crowd says everything in a package is poison. Another crowd says it does not matter as long as the label has the right numbers. Then somebody else walks in wearing a lab coat made out of opinions and starts…
Finding Your Way Home
Give me a partially washed-out dirt road with gravel on the side. Not a perfect road. Not a smooth road, or one of those polished streets with painted lines and lights telling everybody exactly when to stop and go. Give me the old dirt road. The one with…
The Tool Is Not The Boss
I have talked to a hammer before, and usually after I smashed a thumb. I have said a few unkind words to a socket wrench too, especially after dropping a starter on my face. That wrench did not warn me. It did not apologize. It did not offer comfort,…
When The Pond Woke Up
When I was a boy, there were places that looked empty most of the year. Dry ponds. Cracked dirt. Low spots in the field that held nothing but dust, weeds, and the memory of water. You could walk past them and think there was nothing there worth noticing.…
A Letter to My Siblings: The Old Coat in the Trunk
Dear brothers and sisters, I have been thinking about an old song “O Death.” It has that ancient Holler sound similar to that I grew up with. It is thought to have been written in and around 1902-1910 attributed to Baptist Minister Lloyd Chandler. But…
The Tool Is Not the Boss
I have talked to a hammer before, and usually after I smashed a thumb. I have said a few unkind words to a socket wrench too, especially after dropping a starter on my face. That wrench did not warn me. It did not apologize. It did not offer comfort,…
Pick Up More Than the Fork
There are days when I look at what passes for news and wonder if the whole world needs to pull over, shut the engine off, and let the smoke clear. Not real news. I can handle real news, but this? No. I shut whatever this is off. Tell me where war is…
Just Another Day
If it can be messed up, I will manage to do it. I do not say that as a complaint. At this point in life, it is almost a skill set. Some people have hobbies, whereas I have field experience in things going sideways. This morning started early. Not noble…
When The Wallet Starts Choosing
I went to our local grocery store and had one of those moments where you just stand there and stare. Coffee was sitting there at fourteen to twenty dollars a can. Hamburger was pushing toward eight dollars a pound. Guys, I don’t eat filet mignon, and…
Martha, Mary, and the Sound of One Woman Doing All the Dishes
There are some Bible stories that feel far away until you put them in a kitchen. Then suddenly they are not far away at all. Luke 10:38-42 tells us about two sisters, Martha and Mary. Jesus came into their village, and Martha welcomed Him into her house.…