I recently attended a funeral. Yes. Attended…didn’t officiate. That doesn’t happen very often in my line of work. In fact, in the last twenty years, I’ve probably merely attended fewer than five. Attending gives me a different perspective from “conducting.” When I have the privilege of conducting a funeral, my…
I made the same mistake—twice—and didn’t even know I was doing it. In June 2017, I went on my first solo multi-day backpacking trip to the Kettle Moraine State Forest Southern Unit in Wisconsin. I had planned on a five-night trip, covering about 55 miles or so on the Ice…
On warm summer afternoons, I’ll at times work from my home office—the patio in our back yard. There’s a quiet of a different sort out there. At my church study, I’m not normally bothered by much sound at all, frankly. The phone rings from time to time. If someone comes…
Out in the woods along some lightly used trail, dangers lurk to snare the unsuspecting. Even novice hikers are aware of some of these. A brush with poison ivy leaves one itching for relief. An upturned tree root hidden under fallen leaves can trip up the unsuspecting and wrench an…
Before the outbreak of the Wuhan Virus, so much of life had become “virtual” and “digital,” hadn’t it? Since the pandemic, it seems we’re now living in a virtual world! Think about it. Four months ago, a guy would get up about the same time every morning, go through the…
Eight years old and it’s the middle of summer. A bowl of Cheerios, a piece of toast, and you’re ready for a morning of outdoor play. What will it be today? A pick-up game of sandlot baseball? Exploring in the woods, down by the stream, looking for tadpoles and crayfish?…
One of the things I wanted to do during the semi-isolationism of the COVID-19 pandemic was to watch the 1993 movie Gettysburg, based on Michael Shaara’s historical novel, The Killer Angels. I own the DVD, but the movie is a long one—about four hours—and viewed best in one sitting; consequently,…
I’ve shared before that my first real job was at the Ponderosa Steak House in Lombard, Illinois. In the two years I was there, I worked up from dishwasher to “potato boy” to eventually earning the coveted position of cook. My number one task as a cook was to make…
I was there at the time, but I surely don’t remember it. The way my mom tells the story, when I was a baby—not sure exactly how old—I came down with a dangerous case of pneumonia. So bad it was that I spent several days in the hospital in a…
On a recent Saturday, I awoke to a weather alert on my phone. The National Weather Service had issued a severe storm warning for our region with the added threat of tornados. The tornado threat level was both significantly high and rare. All the conditions pointed to the potential for…
