What Your Local Lifeguard Knows
When I was 16 years old, I trained to be a lifeguard. The lesson on our very first day surprised me. In the movies, the rescuer shouts, “I’ll save you!” then dives in and swims madly toward the drowning person. It turns out that in real rescues, you only get in the water as a […]
When Your Faith Goes Postal
Have you ever met an earth angel–a regular person in an everyday place who says something deeply profound at just the moment you need to hear it most? Yesterday, my local post office clerk was that angel. “Keep your fingers crossed for me, Roy,” I said, handing him my book in an envelope addressed to […]
From Blue Book to New Book
A heavy boulder dropped on my heart as I read the diagnosis. My beloved Subaru Outback, who had so lovingly and loyally stayed by my side for 17.5 years, was on her deathbed. Her whole lifetime flashed before me: all of our adventures, our experiences, our dreams and our hopes. Through all of my heartaches […]
The Light from Within the Tunnel
It’s 6 am, the morning I’m due to fly from Boston to Chicago for a cable TV interview. One thousand miles away, an FAA employee takes his own life by setting fire to Chicago Airport’s air traffic control tower. All flights in and out are cancelled. I get the last seat on a 25-hour overnight train. To […]
The Waiting Game
In Spanish, the word “esperar” means both to wait and to hope. This is a good lesson. How many of us wait not with hope, but with impatience and doubt? Much of life requires waiting, and how we wait can make all the difference to our happiness. When you’re on a long line at the […]
No Problem
I’m sad to report that today, I was an airport asshole. As I stood in line for the ticket counter, jammed in among several screaming babies, frazzled moms with carry-on car seats, and a crew of eight buzz-cut army guys with two overstuffed duffle bags each, the wait around the four winding turnstiles to the […]
