The Tribe Has My Back

There is something to be said about being part of a tribe – even when that tribe is only two people wide. This message was hit home for me today at work. My back has been acting up for the last few days. This isn’t a little soreness from pulling weeds or playing with the…

California (Wine) Dreamin’

I sat in the dark bar. My right leg twitched to the beat of the steel drums in my head. I clutched a beer in my shaky hands. I wasn’t shaky from withdrawls, but from the gulping-type sobs which came from the depth of my soul. “How did I do this again? What am I…

So Long And Thanks For All The Fish…

If there’s one thing I am learning to do in my life, it’s to let go of the things that no longer serve me.  But it’s not always easy.  I have always liked clutching onto things, grasping at stuff that clearly no longer did me any good.  These days, ego or pride or just good…

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys, Not My Asics, Not My Brooks

I recently wrote about comparing myself, specifically to other runners.  I explored how this was something that cropped up in my life over and over again.  Not with runners per se, but in many other areas of my life.  And like one of those Whac-A-Mole games, when it disappeared from one part of my life,…

All Practice, No Perfect

  My son had his track meet the other day.  He loves to run and for the last few weeks, we’ve had to brave the early morning chill to go to the running club practices before school started.  Grades 1-6 would practice in cold, rain and sunshine, learning the skills and timing required for the…

The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway

  If you’re a parent, you’re familiar with that closing line from the Frozen soundtrack hit “Let it Go”.  For those of you who don’t have children, and haven’t heard the song…I envy you.  You are on terra firma.  The rest of us are plunged into an icy abyss of relentless repeats of that song being…

Who Are Your Eskimo Angels?

He reeked of booze.  And BO.  I stood beside a man on the bus the other day.  His swollen and busted up face caught my attention.  He had a hospital band on his wrist.  His dead eyes said it all.  In his hand was a bag full of rattling Olde English malt liquor bottles.  He…

Fallen

  I was running yesterday in a nearby park area and stumbled across a makeshift memorial site.  A young man, who lost his life several years ago, still being kept in memory by still-fresh flowers and keepsakes.  I had to stop and take it in.  I also had to keep in mind that this memorial…

This Is A Description, Not An Indictment

I’ve been doing some work over the last week or two.  Recovery work.  Step work, to be honest.  One doesn’t ever graduate from doing this kind of work.  There aren’t diplomas that hang from our walls when we go through this stuff, same as I don’t have one for having a child.  I just continue…

Pinky And The Drain

I don’t often watch TV, but when I do, it’s kids shows.  I will gladly sit through Power Rangers, Blue’s Clues, Pokemon or anything cartoonish rather than deal with the more inane and ever more cartoonish adult programming out there (I speak more about reality shows – don’t worry Game of Thrones folks, I am…