Stories from the ridgeline
Reflections on fatherhood, faith, healing, leadership, adventure, and the spaces between expectation and reality.
October 3, 2026
Some days, I feel like a crash test dummy. Hit the wall. Reset. Another impact. Another lesson. Another person telling me that someday I’ll understand why I had to go through it. There is an idea I have heard throughout most of my life in the church. To be fair, I have heard versions of […]
October 3, 2026
A few summers ago, I visited Banff National Park and stood at the water’s edge of Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Frigid, teal water stretched out beneath towering mountains. Both lakes draw water from glacial melt, and standing beside them, I found the beauty breathtaking. Magnificent. But what stayed with me was the thought of […]
September 3, 2026
I spent most of the day cleaning my house. Not the ordinary kind of cleaning where you wipe down the counters, run the vacuum, and feel satisfied because everything smells faintly like lemon. I was purging. I opened drawers I had ignored, pulled boxes from forgotten corners, and decided what still belonged in my life. […]
August 30, 2026
I have carried a trauma bag for years. It goes with me on adventures because I’ve learned that the wilderness rarely asks permission before something goes wrong. Rivers change. Rocks move. People fall. Bones break. Kayaks flip. Weather turns. A peaceful afternoon can become an emergency in seconds. So I prepare. Inside the bag are […]
May 20, 2026
The Lesson Hidden in the Pack Today was one of those days that felt like it had been hiding a lesson in its pack the whole time. I took Ben, Ella, and Ben’s friend Tyler hiking just outside of Harpers Ferry. It was warm and humid. The kind of day where the air itself feels […]
May 10, 2026
There’s something both sobering and seductive about unfolding a trail map before a climb. At first glance, all you see are lines. Contour marks.Elevation gains.Switchbacks.Distance.Warnings. Sometimes, those lines alone are enough to make you question whether the journey is worth it. The terrain may appear too steep.The route too long.The climb too demanding. From the […]
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 […]
August 29, 2025
Freedom With Boundaries Shortly after the first wave of COVID-19, something unexpected happened in the wide-open spaces of America. The National Park Service began closing gates, not because the wilderness was unsafe, but because it had become too crowded. With gyms, restaurants, and theaters shut down, millions of people turned to the only open sanctuary […]
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 […]
