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  • Faith In A Writer’s Life

    What does it mean to have full faith in something? To let go freely and unconditionally? Many religious and spiritual beliefs ask for this: Trust in God, Trust in The Way, Trust in The Higher Spirit. Let Go and Let God… The one constant in all of them is the concept of surrender, something that…

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  • Remembering Tom Clancy

    Dear Tom: I received the news of your passing yesterday morning in a simple text message from a friend I had been dating when I first met you. It seemed appropriate enough to hear the news from Kelly. Just as I had not seen you since that era of my life ended, it has been…

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  • The Power of Pay It Forward

    The Power of Pay It Forward

    These random acts of kindness are pretty awesome, and they are pretty powerful, too. This morning, I was on the receiving end of pay-it-forward kindness, and I am still basking in the glow of somebody’s anonymous gesture. This is really the first time that something so random has happened to me like this, at least…

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  • I originally published this tribute on September 11, 2006 as part of the 2,996 project, which — sadly — now seems gone as well. I am reposting my tribute to one of the victims, Brett T. Bailey, in keeping my promise to never forget the individuals who lost their lives 12 years ago today. For…

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  • Three Reasons Why So Many Resist Mindfulness

    Why is it so hard for us to be mindful on a daily basis? After taking a pretty hard look at my own life, and then at the lives of so many others who have lived and died so desperately in the past few decades, I’ve come to some conclusions. I’m curious to know: Do…

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  • Creating stories — regardless of the genre — is all about making it real for your readers. They need to buy in to what you have created. If they don’t, then your credibility is shot, your readers will stop buying your books, and you can forget about establishing any kind of relationship with a reader…

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  • Creative and Uncut: The Seams of Love

    It is a mid-summer’s afternoon –late, and I am standing on the pitcher’s mound, playing catch with my son on a deserted baseball field, surrounded by other empty diamonds and rectangles. In just a few short weeks, these overgrown areas will be filled with children changing lives — late-game heroics and crushing defeats. In the…

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  • As we get ready to head back to school for the new academic year, I am aware of a movement that is sweeping across the country to make students and educators more mindful of their learning and their teaching. It is flying right in the face of high-stakes testing and assessment, but is it really…

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  • Mindfulness in the Heart of Baltimore

      I don’t know if you have ever read or seen Ambrose Bierce’s “Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” but yesterday, walking mindfully through Baltimore on my way to a photo shoot for my new gig writing for our local paper, I had one of those “occurrences” in everything that I saw, heard, and felt. If…

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  • I have been in this cafe for a little over an hour, writing in my Daybook to the ambient sounds of chatter, the clanging of dishes, all blended with the meditative, hollow sounds of Deuter playing his bamboo flute. On these pages, I have written about singular moments I experienced decades ago along the marshy…

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