The shattered pieces of our hearts

My body and my heart have been betraying me of late. Physical illness combined with a broken heart is a heck of a one-two punch and can take us to really dark places. But I don’t want to write yet another lament about my misfortunes in love. The temptation is there as I wrestle once […]

Remembering Jacob Wisener

None of us are here without the sacrifice and effort of those who came before. One reason I’ve become attracted to family history is the deeper appreciation I have for how fleeting life is. You don’t have to go very far back in your ancestry before you come across people who are integral to your […]

Love lost and numb

The relationship I’ve been in for the last few months ended the other day. It’s been a bit on-again, off-again as hinted at in other posts of mine over that time frame. For those of you who know me well, the timing is somewhat ironic, as my rock-bottom moment in life came around 10 years […]

How the heart heals and loves again

Some of us are lucky in love. We have a high school sweetheart, fall madly in love, get married and stay married for 60 years. Others of us, it doesn’t work out quite like that. Be it the inability to find anyone to love us; a lack of faithfulness by ourselves or our partner; abuse; […]

Trust and hope

You’ve heard it before, but there are few guarantees in life. Given that fact, it’s easy to view trust and hope as idiotic things. Why should anyone trust anyone else or hope in things that may very well never come to pass? I once thought I had some good answers to those questions, but time […]

Understanding “Star Wars”

If you know me even a little, you know I love “Star Wars.” Despite this pure love for all things that are amazing and good, I realize there are (somehow) people in the Western world who are still unfamiliar with the movies or (even more inexplicably) don’t care for them. Thus, what follows is my […]

The past, memory, and who we really are

I realized I lost a lot of my personal pictures today. It struck me really hard as I come to grips with knowing a lot of the tangible reminders I have of a period of time in my daughter’s life and a handful of wonderful trips I’ve taken may be gone for good. This comes […]