Tag: showing up

  • Commencement Season: Tassels, Tears, and One Last Trip to the Snack Bar

    There’s something strange about graduation season. For four years, students spend most of high school counting down to the end of school—talking about summer, freedom, and escaping homework forever. Then suddenly, during the final few weeks, everyone starts walking around campus like they’re in the last ten minutes of a movie. People who normally sprint…

  • The Discipline of Presence

    I said this to a group of colleagues the other day. We were talking about the apparent apathy we see in students—and in many adults. “Failing to show up is giving the world your consent to move on without you.” Their response was thoughtful. They said the line had weight—but maybe it was too harsh.…

  • Mariachi Me… Same Traje, Different Mileage

    Mariachi Me… Same Traje, Different Mileage

    Being a Mariachi isn’t just about the music. It’s about what you carry before you ever play a note. The traje—sharp, tailored, unmistakable—has a way of teaching you that.  At first, it feels like a costume. Something you put on to look the part. The shine, the stitching, the silver botonadura, the way it commands…

  • Throwing Words Into the Wind

    Let me tell you a story…something I learned about myself, and only fully recently acknowledged. This won’t be a confession of weakness, nor a tale of courage or inner strength. Those are just labels. And the truth is, labels are strangers to far more people like me than most realize. If anything, this story is…

  • The Longest Day – Sanitized, Signed In, and Socially Distanced

    I’ve had long days before. I mean, who hasn’t. Everyone has a horror story or two about work, some more drink worthy than others. A friend and I were recently comparing notes over coffee, as one does when caffeine doubles as a therapist. The conversation inevitably twisted itself around the question: who had the longest…

  • Out of the Dark to Find Me Again

    So last night, I had a realization. Not one of those cinematic, lightning-strikes-the-soul kind of realizations. No dramatic music, no sudden gasp into the void. More like… sitting there, minding my business, and boom—my brain quietly taps me on the shoulder like, “Hey… you good?” And apparently, I wasn’t. Or at least, my writing wasn’t.…

  • Speaking Into Silence — That’s Faith with Wi-Fi

    There’s a specific type of crazy needed to be a content creator. And I mean that in the most loving way possible.  Think about it…. You sit there, just you and a camera (usually a phone) and talk to it about …stuff.  It’s one way dialogue.  Sometimes it’s live, otherwise you aren’t talking to anyone…

  • Like Therapy – No Appointment Required

    Life is a journey—and what a messy, beautiful one it is. There are peaks that make you feel invincible, and valleys that make you question if you packed the right shoes.  Triumphs feel like fireworks; failures feel like stepping on Legos in the dark. Each stumble, each victory, leaves a little mark, whether we notice…

  • I Miss My Mom

    It’s been almost a year since she left us, and some days it still feels like the world paused in that moment. I remember the quiet that filled the house afterward, a silence so deep it pressed against my chest. And yet, in that silence, her presence whispers back to me—in the smallest things, the…

  • Year 26

    Year 26

    25 years as an educator—and at least a dozen more before that coaching, mentoring, running camps, leading arts programs, and engaging in general kid-centered monkey business (some of which may have included dodgeballs, duct tape, and popsicle sticks). It’s been, quite literally, a lifetime of working with young people—changing lives, dodging glitter explosions, and watching…

  • Showing Up Matters: Even on Empty

    Showing Up Matters: Even on Empty

    For many, the day begins with a routine — a shower, a coffee, a to-do list. But for others, the day starts already behind. The alarm clock doesn’t mark a fresh start; it signals a race to catch up. Whether due to overwork, family obligations, economic hardship, health struggles, or emotional stress, some people begin…