A while back a friend told me he’ll do “whatever it takes” to promote and attract people to his event. He believes in the cause it supports, so good results apparently justify “whatever it takes” to achieve them. I get it…when you’re passionate about feeding hungry children, rescuing orphans, or some other desperate cause, the overwhelming […]
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How To Avoid Alligators
Five years ago I cycled Tamiami Trail through the Everglades across southern Florida. Incredible experience riding through a unique, primeval environment. Even got attacked by a mythical skunk-ape (“mythical” story here). Tamiami Trail is a great place to Keep It Between The Ditches. The road’s bordered by deep canals. Several times I saw a single […]
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“Stay out of the ditches” – generally good advice for driving or riding a bike. All sorts of bad stuff happens when a cyclist veers off the road, but simply avoiding the ditch isn’t much of a goal. I can stay on the pavement and still be a terrible rider. In fact, just sitting still, […]
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Hope In Hopeless Places
I love Alycia’s story of finding hope. Grew up in a somewhat unconventional family, not much support or stability, found her own way to Jesus as a teenager, left home after graduation. As she tells it, almost as an afterthought, she did her first mission trip at age 21. Again, without much support, simply because […]
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What’s Your Opinion?
Tom’s my go-to guy for bike mechanics. Lots of knowledge, years of experience, incredible patience, great attention to detail…I trust his judgment and wisdom. Jut as important, Tom won’t pretend to know what he doesn’t know. He doesn’t fear not having every answer. Lots of folks know about bikes, but when Tom offers an opinion I […]
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The Next Right Thing
“I wonder why it turned out so differently?” I’d just finished telling my story to her students. Tears welled as she described her injury – broken vertebrae, paralysis, halo brace, details eerily reminiscent of my experience – yet this vibrant young woman stood in front of me and pondered our very different paths. I shook […]
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“19% of a whole person.” In the aftermath of my injury I received all sorts of information. Some diagnostic, some clinical, some legal…some helpful, some not-so-much. I can’t recall a details any more devastating than the neurologist’s report on the extent of my injury. From a functional standpoint, on an impartial, clinical scale, I was […]
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They Don’t Care
Probably not true. Too easy to dismiss folks who don’t jump into an issue like human trafficking or some other big-deal problem with “they don’t care.” Mostly, though, I believe people DO care. When they know about our 22 kids, about what they’ve endured, I have a difficult time believing they really don’t care. I […]
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Get Better Shoes
I like metaphors. Imagine your path, everywhere you turn, covered by broken glass. One solution: try to cover the entire world so you can walk in comfort. Or…cover your own feet with tough-soled shoes and move forward.* We can fuss about external circumstances that block our path, circumstances over which we often we have no […]
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Why You Should Show Your Work
Students typically don’t like to show their work. Often when I asked students to explain HOW? their explanation sounded a bit like the cartoon. “I did this…then a miracle occurs…and I got the right answer! Cool, huh?” Sounds silly, but I think we often do a similar thing when we share our stories. I think not-showing-our-work […]
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Hope And A Mirror
“Don’t cling to hopes.” My friend Jon wrote that a few days ago as he watched a robin in his backyard. And you’re expecting me to argue…but Jon makes a great point. Our hopes are based on the rear-view-mirror. Back there, I watched someone with a spinal cord injury walk out of the hospital. So I […]
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The Bike In The Garage
“I’ve got two bikes in my garage.” “Great. You should come and ride with us.” “Problem is, neither of them work.” “Maybe that’s not the problem,” I thought to myself. “Maybe the problem is that they’re hanging in the garage. A bike only ‘works’ if you get it down, pump up the tires, and ride […]
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