My friend Alan and I were leaving the Lubbock Breakfast House after a late morning business meeting. Our “thanks for your time, see you next week” was interrupted by yelling.
We looked up to see a man screaming at his kid.
The dad was a barrel chest with a flat top haircut. Movie casting would have made him […]

9:45 AM on Friday, June 8th at Aqua-Tots Swim School in Mesa, Arizona. Ron was working on his laptop while Paul and I were sitting at the meet and greet desk behind the glass.
A guy in a faded, forest green golf shirt walked up to the window. He looked a little frazzled.
Paul slid the window open. “Hi. How can I […]

Spring 1998. A 2:30 Friday afternoon flight from Phoenix to Los Angeles, the flight taken by many business people trying to get home for the weekend.
 
I’m headed to California to visit Charlie, an old college friend. As you probably know, there are no reserved seats on Southwest Airlines. You show up for the cattle call […]

The Fox News headline says that two 2nd grade girls were found murdered in Zion, Illinois today.
These best friends went out to ride their bikes together and never came back. Some despicable, evil bastard stabbed them multiple times and left them for dead.
In an unrelated Fox News story, a stray dog in Nairobi, Kenya found […]

Walking across the parking lot to my truck, I looked up at the blue sky and thought how glad I am to live where I’m not shoveling snow the day before New Year’s Eve.
Unlocking the door on my Mazda and getting in the way I’ve done thousands of times, I stopped half way. The feeling […]

Stop. Look. Listen.
Sound advice for drivers approaching railroad tracks.
It’s also good advice for parents.
At 11:30 this night I stopped, looked and listened in the doorway of my babies’ nursery. Opening the door slowly, I peeked in. Maybe it was fatigue from a long day at work or maybe it was a reflective moment. But I […]

Mercy means we are spared the punishment we deserve. Grace means we receive blessings we don’t deserve. Sometimes these truths are illustrated in a single terrifying moment.
It was 4 PM on the afternoon of April 16th. We had just put our twins down for a nap. Annie and Emma, protesting mildly because it’s in their […]