A Note from the Author

March 4, 2021

Prayer Flags and Other Good Habits
I am sitting on the floor, surrounded by scraps of fabric. There are a million other things I could—and perhaps should—be doing right now. But I have...
Read now
February 25, 2021

Hear, Smell, and Touch
When I hear or see the word “delicious” I naturally think first of some of my favorite foods, but the addition of the definite article “the” broadens my perspective a bit – particularly as it relates to Exploring this Terrain: Poems specifically and to my poetry...
Read now
February 25, 2021

A Kind of Wonder Reveals Itself
For me, every poem is an act of exploration, a venture, even within the familiar, to find what is new and worthy of attention. The act of composing a poem is an opportunity...
Read now
February 23, 2021

Discernment
I team teach a senior seminar about human nature. We spend a lot of time on philosophy, much of it centered on what constitutes a meaningful life. We take those ancient Greeks at their word that...
Read now
February 23, 2021

Technology

Technology continues to transform how we live - and how we live with each other - in good and not so good ways.

I recall an op-ed piece written by a perceptive young waitress that...

Read now
February 23, 2021

The College Drop-Off
I still keep acorns in my coat pockets. It’s a habit that reminds me of visits to parks when our kids were little. They loved sneaking acorns into my pockets and then running away laughing as if they had pulled off some grand caper. I remember one time when...
Read now
February 23, 2021

Sayings of Ethan

I open a blank document, flexing my shoulders on the back of my office chair, then stretching my arms above my head, I ask, “Where does one begin?”

“Dad, you need a good hook!”
Last summer Ethan had...

Read now
February 23, 2021

Two Growing Boys
After seven weeks, with Johnathan weighing five pounds and breathing on his own, we took our son home, rejoicing in the victory. Many battles still lay ahead: three and a half years of horrendous febrile seizures, as well as almost losing him again on the mission field in an incident when he...
Read now
February 23, 2021

God’s Sovereignty Over Evil
In Copenhagen’s Town Hall stands the world’s most complicated clock. It took forty years to build at a cost of more than a million dollars. That clock has ten faces, fifteen thousand parts, and is accurate to two-fifths of a second every three hundred years. Some parts of this clock will not move until twenty-five centuries have passed. What is most intriguing is...
Read now