Stories from the ridgeline
Reflections on fatherhood, faith, healing, leadership, adventure, and the spaces between expectation and reality.
September 24, 2025
The Myth of Arrival: The Hollow Wind on the Ridge From below, the summit gleams like salvation. The peak whispers its promises: just a little higher, just a little more effort, and life will finally feel complete. I’ve heard that whisper on mountainsides, in classrooms, and even in courtrooms. We all have. But here’s the […]
September 19, 2025
The Trailhead I remember road marches during my Army days at Fort Benning, Georgia. We’d start around 2 a.m., moving out under the stars into miles of wilderness; miles of forest thick with loblolly and longleaf pines. Often, the Division of Land Management had just done a controlled burn. We would march straight into landscapes […]
August 30, 2025
I’ve spent nights in the mountains where the fire was my only anchor. The wind cut sharp, the dark pressed in, and no matter how close I pulled my sleeping bag around me, the cold stayed. But the flames gave just enough light and warmth to remind me I wasn’t completely undone. Life feels a […]
August 25, 2025
Reading the Sky of the Soul Every morning, I give my students a writing prompt. An invitation to explore the thoughts in their heads and the emotions in their hearts. These journals are private, theirs alone, a place where honesty can stretch its legs without fear of judgment. After they’ve spent time wrestling with their […]
August 23, 2025
The Rope Between Us If you’ve ever stood at the base of a rock wall with a rope in your hands, you know the weight of responsibility. The climber ties in, checks the knots, and calls down the words that matter most: “On belay?” You respond with steady confidence: “Belay is on.” That simple exchange […]
August 21, 2025
The Canyon Isn’t Silent Grief is a canyon. Wide, but not quiet. Every sound, every memory, every doubt ricochets off the walls and returns in a different form. What starts as a whisper of sadness can come back as a roar of regret. What we thought we left behind suddenly sounds like it’s still ahead. […]
