A LETTER TO MY TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD SELF

A LETTER TO MY TWENTY-FIVE YEAR OLD SELF

Calm down. Trust yourself. You've just met the girl of your dreams and you know it. Be your best. Let's not screw this one up. OK?That means you need to finally finish college. You keep dancing around the finale because you don't know what you want to do with the rest of your life. You say that's the purist in you talking, but it's fear.

LAST CHANCE

LAST CHANCE

Today's long run was fourteen miles for the boys and twelve for the girls — with more than 2,000 feet of climbing. Just to show how quickly the body can acclimate, the same girls who could barely breathe at altitude on Sunday were singing as they finished the last mile of today's run.

THE RINGS

THE RINGS

I started this blog by writing a lengthy and mean-spirited rant about the cancer known as club soccer. . . . In the name of positivity, and with full realization that my mental health is affected by this ongoing frustration far more than those I ridiculed, I hit delete. . . . Surprisingly, all of this started as a warmhearted story about my own befuddlement.

THE VOICE

THE VOICE

With that end to summer frivolity comes the start of a new book. I've actually already begun, though it's at such an early stage that the construction of just one sentence constitutes a full day's work. I go into new projects carefully, well aware that they will soon take over my thought process.

PROBLEM SOLVER

PROBLEM SOLVER

My wife is a professor at a local university. She recently shared a video with me about cognitive thinking that struck a nerve. The speaker was an authority on behavioral research — I can't remember his name off the top of my head, but he had me spellbound for the length of the video. In essence, his viewpoint is that we control the outcome of a situation by determining how we choose to view it.

TRADITIONS

TRADITIONS

I've been working on a new script that has somehow delved into that gray area of family issues. It's weird to find what has been swept under the subconscious rug, and how it comes out through the writing process. When characters start speaking for themselves and revealing disturbing truths — and all writing is a search for truth, otherwise the reader won't fully believe the story — it's a little discomfiting.

PROCESS

PROCESS

There is a saying among distance coaches that “the process is the goal.” It’s not much different than “work the process” or just "process” as a verb. There’s the creative process and a thousand other processes that get us from dreams to that amazing moment when it all comes true, but you've got to find your own and work it.