When I awoke this morning, it was still mostly dark out, and I was greeted with a burning in my chest and a metallic taste in my mouth. The ring finger on my right hand was stiff and sore at the first knuckle for a second day in a row- a new sensation to...
Read more →It’s a funny thing. When asked what one can do to become a better writer, established writers often offer two leading responses: 1) Read more. 2) Experience more. (outside of the ever-present “Write more.”) I appreciate the advice, but what does one do when one is a slow reader? Or a slow experiencer? I...
Read more →I started off this Saturday with some positive, active, constructive plans, and the day began right with some eggs and potatoes and coffee. I read a chapter in a book I have been trying to get through- check. I looked forward to marking several other times off of my to-do list after that, and...
Read more →I’m never quite sure, when I see the door open, if it means I should close it, or leave it alone because it was left open for someone else to use, or just to let some fresh air in the room. The last thing I would ever think is that it was left open...
Read more →Back on December 30th of last year, I wrote about perhaps the biggest frustration I face as I try to live my life- and it is my regular fight with passivity. I stated then that I knew the problem with it I was having, and that I just needed to be more assertive with...
Read more →In today’s reading in Mark, out of chapter 7, the Pharisees try to corner Jesus and his disciples about how their eating practices look a lot like defiling behaviors before the law. But Jesus will not let them take him there. From where does personal defilement come? From what is ingested, or from how...
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This afternoon, my brother texted my immediate family with some good news, and my mom replied to him that it called for a fat celebration for he and his wife. She gave him an encouraging word, and then in an immediate followup text to just me and my dad, she said “I’ll fix supper...
Read more →A the start of this year, I joined a group of people who wanted to read through the New Testament in the year. It’s a convenient exercise to do, because there are 260 chapters in the New Testament, which makes accomplishing the feat involve reading 1 chapter a day, 5 days a week. Anyways,...
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I needed to get out today, so about noon I got my stuff all in the truck and headed for NM-14. Why NM-14? I have no idea. My original plan was to end up at Santa Cruz Lake by Nambe at dusk, and I guess NM-14 was a more interesting way to get there....
Read more →When Saturday rolled around, Taggart was up long before the sun. Unable to sleep because of the week’s stressors and his unabated agitation, Joe was in his Ford by 5:15, his truck aimed east, out of town. Once he escaped the suburbs by 6:00, he rumbled on coarse asphalt through Decker’s Pass and down...
Read more →Tonight I enjoyed the first movie I’ve watched in a little while since I have tried to dedicate myself a little more to reading and writing since the beginning of the year. Ever since seeing the trailer for the Marvel film “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings”, I had anticipated taking the...
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Let’s continue on in the “Seven Things” series. I sometimes have a sizable problem. I like sugar and sugary things. A lot. And I am occasionally surprised, at this point in my life, that I am not a diabetic. But I have tried to moderate my sugar splurges. Still? Candy usually equals yes. Tonight,...
Read more →“But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions.” – Matthew 19:22 In Matthew, Mark and Luke, the Gospel authors each tell the story of a wealthy young man who comes to Jesus and asks him what one must do to enter the Kingdom of Heaven....
Read more →I have nothing today, so here is the voice of my enemy, which does well to drive me to waste excessive amounts of my time staring at a blank screen and toss me headlong me into abject frustration. 1. “I have nothing to say.” 2. “I hate these words.” 3. “That sounds idiotic.” 4....
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Tonight after work I met my sister, her husband, and her eldest son for a walk in the Sandia foothills at dusk. I had my camera with me, but a long stretch of clouds to the west made the prospects of remarkable light at sun down seem pretty slim. Except, there was a thin...
Read more →When I was a kid, my family lived on a street in Northeast Albuquerque with a cul-de-sac that backed up against Juan Tabo Boulevard and sat north of Copper by a block. From 1973 to 1978, I was a student at Tomasita Elementary School, which was several blocks west of our street. My memories...
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