On Football and Failure

Bum Phillips, coach of the Houston Oilers in the 70’s and the New Orleans Saints in the 80’s, died on October 18, 2013 at the age of 90. His real name was Oail Andrew Phillips Jr., but he was always called Bum, short of brother, which his younger sister couldn’t...

Goals

In a recent blog post, Patrick Ross mentioned his enthusiasm for setting goals rather than making New Years Resolutions, which none of us seem to keep. He started with a vision statement – what he enjoys doing and where he’d like to be in five years, which Ross soon...

Ole Tom

This past holiday season, Keith and I tried some new recipes – herbed lamb roast with yogurt and cucumber, pot roast with creamy mushroom grits and a root vegetable medley – and trotted out the old favorites – turkey with bread stuffing, mince pie and Christmas...

Reality

After church and lunch yesterday, Keith and I went grocery shopping. Keith pushed the cart into the produce section while I consulted my list. “Do you want some fruit?” I asked. “Um, sure,” Keith said, distracted as he looked towards the floral department. The cart...

Reaching for the Light

Christmas is the season of light, perhaps an irony in the Northern Hemisphere during the shortest days of the year. Like the Taoist forces of yin and yang, when our days seem dark and our nights long, when all we see is failure, the light of truth appears closest at...

Keeping up

“’I didn’t know what twerking was, so I had to research it.’ –mom” (Twerking: a combination of the words ‘twist’ and ‘jerk’ – widely associated with hip hop in the U.S.) During my visit to Dallas this past fall, my son David and I stopped for coffee....