Two Days in the Congo
While thousands of Congolese including children work the mines for this precious mineral, the rest of the world complains about its internet going out. When a 7 year old works 12 hour days inhaling toxic chemicals, we concern ourselves with how long the checkout line is.
Yippee Ki-Yay Christmas - Die Hard for Kids
When the title screen appeared with the little content rating in the top left corner I literally laughed out loud when the rationale for the PG-13 rating was "Some images of violence, war and… historical smoking." Historical smoking? Get the hell out of here
Days Like this
Van Morrison said his mama told him there'd be days like this. Alexandre Dumas said life is a storm. I've come to think of it as a pendulum — and the only way to survive the swings is by finding your way to center. That, and the unspoken brotherhood of dads, communicated entirely through a single, knowing nod.
Grapple: What My Daughter Taught Me About the Meaning of Life
Frankl wrote that "when man cannot find meaning, he numbs himself with pleasure." I think about that line often as a father — about what it means to find meaning in the small acts of raising kids, and what it means when we lose the thread.
Dear Me,
I found a letter I wrote to myself a year earlier, tucked into the back of a journal I'd been filling for a decade. I didn't remember writing it. But sitting there reading my own words back, with a quote from the Count of Monte Cristo at its heart, I realized the version of me from a year ago knew exactly what I needed to hear today.
Meditative State of Mind
I grew up in Idaho being told that meditation was part of Satan's plan to infiltrate my soul. Thirty years later, on a night my daughter Clare couldn't sleep for fear of devils, I asked her to breathe with me — and realized I'd come a long way from where I started.
HIgher Love
I asked the girls, "What are some things that are a higher love to you?" My younger daughter started rattling off — "You, momma, Maggie, the kitties, our friends" — and with a slight pause and a toothless grin from the rear view mirror she said "myself.”
while there is time
While there is time, let's go out and feel everything." Steve Winwood wrote that in 1986. I didn't really understand the line until I was an adult — and didn't really feel it until I took my eight- and six-year-old daughters on their first backpacking trip into Rocky Mountain National Park, three miles deep, with a hail storm above the tree line and a forgotten first aid kit.
The Mountains are calling
He sees the shattered fragments of light scattered across the plane of darkness and he wants to pick them all up. They are a piece of him. He is frantic and scared. Terrified those pieces will slip away forever if he doesn’t mine them like the gold they are - he will lose himself. A tender hand lands on his shoulder. It is warm and powerful but gentle and it reminds him that it’s okay.
Wildflowers
Tom Petty wrote "Wildflowers" in a single take. At 13,000 feet up a Colorado mountain, wildflowers grow in conditions that should kill them. Down in my backyard garden box, my daughters and I waited three weeks for the first sprouts. Somewhere between Petty's song and the mountainside, I started to see what kind of growth I really want for my girls.
Moab and the Voice of ancient Gods
Moab. The name itself emits a deep tone — like an ancient god whose voice still rumbles the valleys. Under a Super Flower Moon and against burnt red canyon walls, the desert reminded me that we're made of stardust, that we are very small, and that nature will tell us what we need if we sit still long enough to hear it.
‘Its okay to lick Dinsors’
A snowstorm canceled the daddy-daughter dance, so we put on the dresses anyway and went to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. Somewhere between the dinosaur fossils and a plate of mac and cheese, I watched my six-year-old start to grow up right in front of me — and I'll never forget what I saw.
Concrete Rose
A quiet Monday morning. Two small daughters who look at me in awe. A longing I can't quite name. A poem about stillness, fear, fatherhood, and the part of life worth remembering — to live it.
“Dogs Like Blueberries!”
"Alexa! Can dogs eat blueberries?!" That was the start of it. By the end of dinner, my 5-year-old had pulled off a deceit so bold I almost couldn't be mad — and reminded me that being a good dad means knowing which kid you're parenting in any given moment.
The Space Between
Four months after my grandfather's memorial, a family friend recommended a book that led me back to a letter written 76 years ago — from my great-grandfather to my Papa at 16. The words "a lifetime isn't long enough" hit differently now that I'm a father myself.
Oh The Places You’ll Go
A spatula in one tote, a spoon in the next, and then — staring up at me from a plastic box on an Amazon conveyor belt — a copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go. What followed was a reflection on Dr. Seuss, fatherhood, and the bang-ups, hang-ups, and slumps we all face on the journey
Me, Myself & Ireland
The original fear I had in Cuba that I wouldn't have anyone to share the experiences with had now flipped and I was cherishing moments that were for me, myself and Ireland
Life comes in Waves
I'll be honest. I didn't know what to say. My heart broke for her. She cried about having to have moved four times in her first six years of life.
Dating after Divorce, explained through binary stars
Dating is hard. I'd forgotten this until I actually started doing it after my divorce. Somewhere along the way, I started thinking of relationships less like soul mates and more like binary stars — two points of light orbiting each other, sometimes drifting apart, sometimes burning brighter together. Especially when you've got kids watching.
A head full of Clouds
On a dock in Belize, the sun setting behind me, the clouds turned into the cast of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. A lioness, an elephant, a turtle becoming a dog. A shooting star for the encore. A reminder to look up — and to see the world the way my daughters do.