Wow, have to admit that title was hard to write, now the hard part begins, the blog post. Thinking back to high school I have always felt I was just short of the finish line and that my best wasn’t enough. I remember one such time playing baseball sophomore year. I had given me all during practice, I wasn’t the best, but I always showed up and gave my all. That year I only played two innings the entire season, and my primary job was keeping the book. I share this because this feeling of not...
Have you ever felt lost? I can’t tell you how often I have felt lost, so many times in my life going all the way back to high school. It has been kind of that word that keeps repeating at different seasons of my life. Lost on what is the right next step after high school. Lost on what is the right next step after the Marine Corps. Lost on how to be the best husband I can be. Lost on understanding how to live a full life as a father. Lost on what to do after dropping out of college. Lost on...
It is almost Father's Day, and it can be easy to get swept up into the commercialism of the holiday and figuring out what dad wants. Maybe your dad is one of those that is hard to buy for like me, but I want to share a message that isn't very widely repeated. This time last year, my wife was in China part of a teacher observation program here locally, and so I got to be just Dad for 10 days, and that also included Father's Day. What I remember most about this time was that being reminded of...
Ever heard the marriage advice, always express your concerns about a situation using the “I feel” method? Its easier said than done, but still a noble goal to work towards. But marriage is not the topic of this post. I realized something after reading a different blog post on this topic that when it comes to our kids how often do we really express how something makes us feel. Very often parenting is telling kids to do one thing or another because I said so. Or when kids misbehave, it's...
This past weekend I was watching our new favorite Christmas movie on Netflix, “The Christmas Chronicles.” It is not new this year, but it was last year, and we probably watched it 10 times last year. This year it hit me a little different now being on the other side of 50 podcast episodes. It’s a great story about Christmas, loss in a family, but most importantly it highlights one of the most important gifts we give our kids. The belief in themselves. In the movie, the dad was a...
On Veterans Days we honor the ones who are with us that served and pay respect to that sacrifice. As a husband, a father, and a Marine veteran it means something a little different to me. When I first transitioned out of the Marines in 2007, being a veteran was really the last thing I wanted to be known for or be recognized for. Serving for a veteran doesn’t make us special, it is just a thing we did and now it is behind us. But really, we never put it behind us because we are always...
It has been 12 years since I left the Marine Corps and began the long road back to civilian life. As I write this its July 2019 another 4th of July is upon us. Every year we go to a local parade and being in the Midwest, it is filled with lots of Firetrucks, tractors, and floats. And every year I can't help but cry when the Flags walk by. Last year I took an extra few moments to dig into the emotion and see what triggers it. I never served in Iraq or Afghanistan or had to deal with the loss...
This answer comes to us from the Disney movie Coco and the celebration of the tradition of the day of the dead. The day of the dead is the celebration of the ones who have left this life and moved onto the next. The multi-day holiday involves family and friends gathering to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died and help support their spiritual journey. In Mexican culture, death is viewed as a natural part of the human cycle. Mexicans see it not as a day of sadness...
I was reminded of this in a recent episode of the podcast with Phil Oblak, episode 21. He recommended the book Wild at Heart by John Eldredge. At the core, the book talks about the need for every man to have an adventure in our life. That from very young age boys seek out the dangerous, the risky, the path not taken. A good friend of mine Dan Zehner runs a podcast dedicated to this called the Anthem of the Adventure. It was inspired by a conversation he had with John in a mastermind...
This is one of the last lines in the movie Christopher Robin. The movie was fun to watch, but it hit a cord to who was I was just a few years ago. I was the dad focused on work, focused on the next thing outside of the family that was going to make me happy finally. The one moment at work someone would finally say they are proud of me. This movie has so many connections to live; it's crazy. The sad part is most of them were missed on the adults that sat watching it with their kids. As...
