My son Josh and I just returned this week from a wonderful time visiting a couple of our western national parks. We camped in a tent in Yellowstone for six nights, and marveled at steaming thermal springs and mud pots, conical and fountain geysers, torrential waterfalls and prismatic hot springs encircled by a breathtaking rainbow …
I smoked a few cigarettes this past weekend without even knowing it. That’s when Denver earned the dubious honor of the worst air quality of any large city in the world. Wasn’t even our pollution—smoke from fires in California and Oregon just settled here. Air experts cautioned against outdoor exercise, saying a day outside would …
Last week’s post highlighted the battle for our attention in a frenetic, information-saturated culture. Like the drone of a fan or the roar of a river puts us to sleep physically, the seemingly infinite stream of data coming at us can lull our minds into slumber. I like this quote from the movie Joe vs …
One 90s movie we’ve enjoyed, Sister Act 2, includes a choral instructor‘s challenge to a disengaged group of high school music students: “If you want to be somebody, if you want to go somewhere, you’d better wake up and pay attention!” One might easily recall the line after watching the film because a student immediately …
I remember as a teenager watching Soviet Olympic weightlifter Vasily Alexeev set a new world record lifting over five hundred pounds in the clean and jerk. Reported to have eaten 26 fried eggs and a steak for breakfast before a competition, Vasily set 80 world records and reigned undefeated for eight years. Feats of strength …
Whether it’s losing weight, saving money, or trying to develop a new habit, we often give up because we don’t see results fast enough. In much of the western world, we are programmed for immediate gratification. I read recently that in the United States, 70% of economic growth comes from consumer spending. The huge advertising …
I don’t know about you, but I sometimes confuse how things are with how they should be, holding tightly to the latter in defiance of the former. Some very stubborn behavior has accompanied my insistence on enforcing “the principle of the thing.” Yesterday, I was walking with a friend and where the trail crossed a …
You could sense their hesitation as the captains took turns choosing their players. Of course, they’d started with the fastest and strongest, but at this point, we were well past the elite and down to the dregs. No doubt they’d have preferred to stop while ahead, but they were obligated to include everyone in the …
Have you ever felt like you were facing something that felt too big for you? It might have been graduating from high school or college. Or the responsibilities of parenthood after learning you had your first child on the way. Perhaps it was a job that felt a few sizes too big for you. When …
Have you ever seen a lion? Perhaps at the zoo? And how did it behave? When I was in South Africa a few years ago, I enjoyed a small safari on a wildlife refuge where we saw a number of lions. Lying placidly under a shade tree they seemed little threat. But when the food …
