For nearly 14 years I’ve carried with me an aging reminder that there is value in striving for growth; growth in relationships, the workplace, my faith…and growth in myself. Before your imagination runs wild I’ll tell you the item is just a bag, and not a particularly impressive one by…

When I lost the ability to use my arms after a vehicle accident, my whole identity as a father — and a man — was lost also. — Her screams cut me deeper than she meant them to, but the facts were clear: I was deficient, and this helplessness was a new layer to my trauma. To her I’m a constant; one of two people she knows to rescue her from the hunger she can’t yet understand, and…

There is a split-second for your body to prepare for the trauma before the car slams into your left side, and a leisurely ride into work on a sunny day becomes an exhausting and painful day at the hospital. Your fight-or-flight instinct is sparked by the adrenaline pumping through your…

It seems to be its own past-time to ask John Kasich whether he’s going to run again for president, perhaps even challenging the incumbent Donald Trump. CNN is especially interested in Kasich’s plans, and the network invited the two-term Ohio Governor to let viewers see into a crystal ball, and…

The iron-framed grave markers of Eglise St. Martin look sadly and unnecessarily neglected around the church’s perimeter. Some crucifixes are broken; the stone legs of a depiction of Jesus Christ sit disconcertingly on a pile of stone blocks. Some stone markers have crumbled or faded. …

Even mentioning my plans to look at minivans earned the kind of under-the-breath-but-actually-directly-at-you reactions you might expect. “Well, well, well, a minivan, huh?! Going to be a van dad, huh?! Deciding to give up being cool, huh?!” Even as jokes, the point seemed to be that entertaining the minivan —…

What used to be an exception in journalism seems to have become a norm: affording anonymity to sources offering some unattainable insight, intentionally-hidden fact, or, it seems, juicy gossip. If-and-when to grant anonymity is one of the more controversial discussions in the journalism realm, and it should be. A written…

Kevin McGinty was one of those people whose generosity of spirit cut through the callousness of a world drenched in cynicism. He could be cynical, like all of us, but I only heard it in the form of his jokes, or anecdotes, or a few words of encouragement. As I…

In the pangs of grief the simplest tasks can seem the most insurmountable. Buttoning a shirt. Pouring a glass of water. Writing a paragraph. Inexplicably we can burst into tears because our subconscious remembered that we were grieving, before our conscious selves permitted the rawness to claw back to the…