Misery--A Choice?

In early October around a Sunday mid-afternoon, the F150 pulled into a Rock Creek campground. Gear quickly shifted from the truck to the site, I used a flex hose to connect the propane tank to my camp stove, and headed down to the stream for some solo fishing. Not another fisherman in sight, and the trout bit eagerly. A great beginning, and I cleaned the two keepers.

Time now for dinner, so I got the tamales and chili ready to heat, but the stove showed no flames. At all. But the lantern at the top of the post worked, so I knew the tank was giving out gas. I…

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Don't Sweat the Small Stuff?

Decades back, I learned to not sweat the small stuff. Some problems and irritations just aren’t worth getting stressed over—they merely upset us and nothing changes for the good. At times we should be a duck—let the small stuff roll off our backs like water off a duck’s back. But a stay in Sedona Arizona, I learned to sometimes sweat the small stuff.

Leaving the enchanting Chapel of the Holy Cross, a cactus in bloom joyfully stood in front of the red rock towers and hills. So, I took a pic, intrigued with the intersection of colors and delicacy and mass. Before driving away…

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Dare to be Yourself

To walk among the giant redwoods feels sacred: Shafts of sunlight shift slowly as they take their place in this natural cathedral. Despite their beauty and height, redwood trees cannot make all the food they need. They need the help of mushrooms, lichens, and other organisms to supply them the remainder of the food they need. Did you know that over 200 kinds of organisms help them thrive?

Today’s photo shows a rare, albino redwood in northern California. Albino trees have no chlorophyll. Thus, they cannot make any food for themselves. How did it come to be, and how does it live?…

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Schedules and Priorities

Almost two years ago, Rich and I began to plan a ride to Colorado and New Mexico for mid-May of 2026. I’d leave from SoCal, Rich from South Dakota, and we’d meet in Grand Junction CO. But I finally got a date scheduled for my much needed total knee replacement—April 1. Appropriate, I guess. My optimism for the ride said mid-May, my surgeon said three months. Yielding to his expertise, we penciled in Monday July 7, after the rush of the 4th. Remember the word “penciled.” Then Rich realized he forgot a commitment, so we pushed it back a week. In pencil. I had a hard deadline to be home by July 29, to teach at an online writers conference beginning the next day.

But Rich’s wife…

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The Brevity of Life

140 years ago, this gravestone of my great great grandfather was fresh and clear. Now, the information about his life can only be read with difficulty. Not long ago my wife and I traveled to Park City Utah, near the birthplace of my father, to combine a week's vacation and a family heritage tour. Thomas Jefferson Thurston pioneered a valley east of Ogden, accumulated a number of worthwhile accomplishments in his 80 years, and passed away in St. George UT in 1885. But outside his family and a few historians, few know of him (yes, he was…

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Born in Blood and Mud

True confession time—not only am I a bit of a Christmas junkie, but this post is revised from earlier, because the concept haunts me. Our displays seem so bright and cheery and sanitary, but the first Christmas differed, and the difference impacts our following. So, let’s think about that first one.

His parents were alone, far from home and family, and likely delivered their firstborn…

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Seek Advice

My two years in Taos transformed my life—giving me challenges and encouragement to enter the ministry, making lifelong deep friends. Something about the plains yielding to the mountains, the striking crystal-clear blue sky, the blend of three cultures, and soul thrilling outdoor options. I suspected John Denver had been reading my mail in his line, “He was born in the summer of his 27th year, coming home to a place he’d never been before.” I came, I saw, I loved it, I knew it.

But when Rich and I rode into Taos last summer…

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French Camp Lessons

I know just enough science to trouble me, yet not enough to create a profession. My high school chem and physics captivated me, and I even taught junior high science for two years. My Sierra trips awoke an interest in geology and astrophysics, enough to purchase a graduate level text, “Annals of the Former World.” Frequent visits to a dictionary help me understand it. Guess getting philosophical and theological were destined at French Camp on…

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