Life Unraveled

Congratulations, valued customer!  Here is your unique, do-it-yourself LifeLawns yard kit.  We will walk you through all of the steps necessary to create the lush, vibrant lawn of your dreams.  Please pay close attention to the following instructions, and you will be well on your way to a lifetime of the greenest pastures you could ever hope for! 1)  Take the seeds and plant them.  Water them.  Feed them.  Let them germinate.  Be patient, as this may take some time.  You may have the desire to dig up the seeds, wondering if they are ever going to grow or not.  Please just leave them be .  They will grow, as long as you feed them and nurture them along.   This is all you need to do.  You don't need to see what is happening underground.  Just trust it.  2)  The first signs of sprouting have happened!  The seeds took hold.  You will notice tha...

There are certain times in our lives that stand out, for one reason or another, as pivotal moments in our growth.   It's as if they become fused in our psyche, a permanent signpost along the road of life signifying something really big .  For me, the importance of these episodes doesn't come from the actual events as they play out before my eyes, but rather for what I am being shown about myself, about others, and about the world at large.  In the end, it's always the lesson that counts. This past week, I recalled one such moment vividly.   Let's all take a trip back in time to late 2003, shall we?  I was going to move across the country, from Atlanta to California, finally fulfilling my dream of moving west.  Now let me tell you, this dream had some legs.  It probably started way back when I was in elementary school while growing up in New York state.  Looking back, it seemed that I had been tellin...

I am so conflicted.  I just got a new phone.  A smart phone.  Is it really smart?  Um, I guess.  At least as far as phones go. The better question is: was this a smart move on my part?   Right now, that is up for debate. In a mere two days since this acquisition, I have gone from feeling like a precocious five-year old on Christmas morning who excitedly unwraps his favorite present and then joyfully introduces it to anyone who will listen, to that same five-year old about a week after Christmas has passed and the novelty has worn off.  We all know how that turns out.  Into the toy bin it goes, rarely to be seen or heard from again.  But I can't do that with this phone.  Or can I?  Even if I did, I think it might be smart enough to escape on its own. What is this existential crisis I seem to have with technology anyway?  It's not as if I don't come home every day a...

Lord, have I had a hard time writing about my recent trip home. I'm not sure why.  I guess I figured I would have alot to say after it was all over.  Not really the case.  Serves me right for having such high expectations.  We all know what happens when u assume (ass-u-me) things, right? I mean, there were definitely highlights.  The people, for one.  I love that my best friends from school (high school and college both included here) are still so important to me.  Sure, we have Facebook and all that, and so it is infinitely easier to keep in touch regularly with so many people.  But nothing replaces the face to face contact.  Nothing .  It does the heart good to see a smile, share a laugh with (not an lol , but the real thing), and to look into the eyes of some of the most important people I have known to this point in my existence.  I hope that any of you reading this who fall into that category know exac...

It was 1991.  The year I graduated from high school.  I don't remember too much about it, actually.  Oh wait.  I do remember that I got my hair cut about two days before graduation, and the woman with the clippers accidentally shaved two thin bald lines into the sides of my head before I knew what had happened.  She claimed that I asked for them.  I think I would have a memory of such a request, but perhaps I blacked out in the barber chair or something.  Who knows.  She soothed me by saying that this particular hairstyle was the "in thing", as everyone wanted to look like the rapper Vanilla Ice in 1991 (or so she half-heartedly attempted to convince me).  Rather than shave my head completely bald to correct this gaffe, I went with the lines instead, to the horror of my mother, who even proposed coloring in the bald streaks with her eyeliner pencil.  Nobody would ever know, she insisted.  Riggghhhht.  ...