Dadzooka
I was staring at my feet as I trudged across the crunchy shell of snow that is my children’s, elementary school playground. My thoughts were caught up in a mess of must do’s and can’t do’s and wish I didn’t have to’s. As I neared the spot where my kindergartner lines up for pick up, I saw that he had
Read more
To be honest, I’m shocked at how little karate I’ve needed so far in my life. The Karate Kid had me convinced that most of my upcoming, teen conflicts would need to be handled with a roundhouse kick or a hammer fist. A lifetime of peaceful, conflict resolution had nearly tamed my wild heart but then came Cobra Kai… I’m
Read more
Tonight, in preparation for the first Monday of 2021, we tucked all the kids into bed, promptly at 8 o’clock. They got up for water at 8:10, 8:15 and 8:20. My wife then forgot that they needed to clip their fingernails and that process took 20 minutes. They were back in bed by a quarter to nine when the dogs
Read more
Two weeks at a time is no way to live. It’s also no way to be a father. I bring this up because I feel like this is how we have been living since nine months ago when we all collectively decided to “flatten the curve.” Two weeks turned into two months, followed by the brief respite of summer and
Read more
Tonight, we drove the sun down across the high desert, vastness that is the lonely stretch of 287 between Lander and Muddy Gap. I watched it drift beyond the the horizon, glazed by California, wildfire like some magnificent ruby in the sky and I realized… this is the last sunset of summer. It was beautifully, poignantly surreal. I was deep
Read more
I drank a beer tonight before I came home from work. It was my third, 13 hour shift in a row. I thanked my employees for another awesome job, wished them goodnight and then I sat on a counter and just drank a beer without really thinking of much at all, except for one thing. I thought about how thankful
Read more
Tonight, while the world trembled in fear at the prospect of the coronavirus coming to a town near them; my wife and I celebrated our 11th wedding anniversary. An anniversary is not unlike a pandemic disease. It is overhyped for completely arbitrary reasons, we make unwise financial decisions and ultimately, despite fretting to an unhealthy degree about a future that
Read more
I cautiously peek over the top of my phone where I am reading the latest news about the Coronavirus outbreak in the states. I see three, red eyed boys with drippy noses and droopy frowns gazing lethargically at the television. They’ve been coughing for hours, like flem fueled war drums marching ruin and despair to my peaceful homeland. My entire
Read more
There are, I believe two tricks to living a happy life. The first is to possess gratitude; to appreciate how truly blessed that you are (and you always are.) The second, which is the harder bit, is to courageously embrace the challenges that your future holds. These things are at odds because to embrace the first leads to naturally fearing
Read more
I was sixteen years old when I first told a girl that I loved her. She said it back and I felt as though the previously, serene pastures of my heart had been set suddenly ablaze by a fire that would consume my very world. This, I thought to myself, is love. She left me three months later after the
Read more