Stories from the ridgeline
Reflections on fatherhood, faith, healing, leadership, adventure, and the spaces between expectation and reality.
January 7, 2026
Several years ago, I wrote my eulogy. Not because I was morbid.Not because I was giving up.But because I wanted a compass. I wasn’t trying to predict how my life would turn out. I was trying to decide (before the fog rolled in) who I wanted to be when the trail got hard, the weather […]
January 5, 2026
The Silver Screen Movies speak to me.They always have, and I suspect they always will. Stories find us when we stand at the edge of something costly. They slip past our defenses and give us language for courage before we know how to live it. They remind us of truths we already carry but haven’t […]
January 3, 2026
A Different Kind of New Year’s Resolution Every January, the trailheads fill up. Gym parking lots overflow. New shoes hit the pavement. Promises are made under fluorescent lights and hopeful headlines: This is the year. Lose weight.Get disciplined.Become better. But no one asks the quieter question. The one that matters far more on a long […]
November 4, 2025
Healing, I’ve learned, isn’t a finish line you cross; it’s a trail that never really ends.It winds, it doubles back, it disappears in fog, and just when you think you’ve reached the top, the clouds shift and you see another ridge rising in the distance. For years, I thought healing meant arrival. That if I […]
October 23, 2025
The Weight of the Pack Every long hike begins the same way: with a pack heavy enough to question your judgment.We start with everything we might need. Extra socks, backup batteries, snacks for every craving. There’s comfort in carrying abundance, in believing we’re prepared for every twist in the trail. But somewhere along the way, […]
October 21, 2025
The Gift and the Chain I’ve never liked receiving gifts. If the five love languages were laid out like a mountain range, receiving gifts would be the low valley in my landscape. Shadowed, uncomfortable, a place I tend to pass through quickly. For years I couldn’t name why. But one day, standing in the shower, […]
October 17, 2025
The Weight of the Pack Every hiker learns the same lesson the hard way: what you carry matters. As a young Boy Scout, I often overpacked. Layers for every forecast, food for an army, and gear that promised security. As each mile passed, my shoulders ached, my breath shortened, and I realized the pack wasn’t […]
October 12, 2025
When the Trail Disappears It’s strange how quickly the world can vanish. One moment you’re following a well-marked trail, the crunch of gravel steady beneath your boots, the trees parting just enough to show the next turn. Then the fog rolls in (quiet as breath) and suddenly everything you trusted fades. The path you were […]
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 […]
