life lessons

  • A Spirit Born From Belief

    A Spirit Born From Belief

    Santa was never just a man in a red suit. Long before that look ever existed people were already telling stories about a winter visitor moving through the dark months. Odin riding the night sky. Father Winter. Grandfather Frost. Old spirits meant to guide people through the cold and the fear that came with it.

    Read more →

  • It’s in the Bloodline, Honey

    A dream of my grandmother revealed a truth that lingers: we inherit more than DNA. We carry the stories, emotions, and unfinished dreams of those who came before us. It’s all in the bloodline.

    Read more →

  • When a Life Becomes a Legend

    It is a strange moment when you begin to realize your life story has slipped out of your hands and into legend.

    Read more →

  • Every morning I go down to the onsen in our hotel and soak for about a half hour. It has become a ritual for me, not just relaxation but something deeper. The Japanese onsen is steeped in centuries of tradition. There is a right way and a wrong way, and before you go, you must

    Read more →

  • The Chosen

    My relationship with God is not a complicated one. I live on very even ground with Him. We have an understanding, a quiet agreement that I am who He made me to be. Sometimes I believe that being gay has actually made me one of His chosen. Think about it. You come into this world

    Read more →

  • Angels?

    What do I believe? That question has haunted me for years. Angels. Guiding beings. Protectors. Light. Love. The word itself carries a kind of warmth, does it not? But what if we have been looking at them all wrong? During the Screaming House haunting, something strange would happen. The phone would ring, and on the

    Read more →

  • The Last Chorus

    The door to the bar opened and light flooded in. The sun was rising outside but we didn’t care. We sat at the bar, still half-dreaming from the night before. Roy was behind it, wiping glasses, humming along to the sound system. I can still see him smiling at something silly Anni had just said

    Read more →

  • It Only Takes One

    The danger of what lies ahead feels familiar to anyone who remembers Kent State. On May 4, 1970, in Ohio, a group of college students gathered on the Kent State University campus to protest the expansion of the Vietnam War into Cambodia. They were young. They were angry. They were unarmed. The National Guard had

    Read more →

  • The Zeitgeist of Hate

    I came to an understanding recently. What we are dealing with in the United States is not political and should not be framed that way. It runs deeper than red or blue. Yes, people often line up that way and the extremes on both sides dominate the noise. But most Americans live in the quiet

    Read more →

  • For years I told myself I would find a man and build a life that did not have to exist in bars or bathhouses. I wanted something steadier. I wanted a partner I could grow old with, a man I could have a family with, someone who would walk beside me in the ordinary days

    Read more →