When I was a younger man, I thought I had the rest of my life planned. I wanted to write songs, travel, buy a motorhome, and eventually settle somewhere on the beach in Todos Santos, Baja California. After decades of working, I believed I had earned the chance to slow down and enjoy life at my own pace. Life had other plans…

I heard a simple line in a movie the other night: “What doesn’t bend, breaks.” It wasn’t meant to be profound. It was just a passing remark before the story moved on. But it stayed with me. As I was getting ready for bed that night, another image appeared in my mind. I could see an entire riverbank covered with smooth river rocks…

I have a question for you. How many poems have you written that no one has ever read? How many stories, letters, journal entries, or treasured memories are tucked away in a drawer or saved on your computer? Perhaps you’ve written about your childhood, your parents, your husband or wife, your children…

The other morning, I found myself listening to a song I hadn’t heard in quite a while. It was “Monsters” by James Blunt. The first time I heard that song years ago, it hit me like a freight train. Something about the sadness in the lyrics, the emotion in his voice…

Recently, I took a trip to Idaho to visit my son. He’ll be 56 this July. I adopted him when he was six weeks old, and from the moment he came into my life, he brought me more joy than I could ever explain in a sentence or two. We’ve had a good life together. Not perfect. No life is. But real. As parents, I think we sometimes freeze our children in time without realizing it…

Lately, I’ve been looking at getting older a little differently. I don’t see it as something slipping away anymore. I’ve started to think of it more like a 1943 Ford – still standing, still running, but with a few parts that have needed attention along the way. If I take inventory, I’ve had my share of work done. There’s a screw in my knee from a skiing accident back in…

There’s something I’ve come to notice as I’ve gotten older, and once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it. It is this basic truth: We don’t give ourselves much credit. When I look back on my life, the facts are there. I built and ran businesses. I bought, remodeled, and sold twenty-six homes. I earned a pilot’s license. I played in bands…

There’s a line in a song I wrote recently that stayed with me longer than the music: “I know it’s my own doing… bein’ where I be… but that don’t make it easier… livin’ inside of me.” I didn’t write that line as advice. It wasn’t meant to fix anything. It just showed up one day, the way honest things tend to do. And the more I sat with it, the more I realized how much of life can feel like that…

There’s something I’ve noticed over the years. People don’t usually welcome new things. Not at first. They question them. Push back. Sometimes reject them outright. And only later – when those same things quietly begin to help – they reconsider…

There are days when the body quietly reminds you who is in charge. It doesn’t ask permission. It doesn’t check your plans. It simply slows you down, and with it, something else slows down too – your mind. Last night, I didn’t feel well. Nothing serious, just enough to take the edge off everything…