I found you Among my souvenirs Written in lead Ruined by tears A simple letter All loops and smears Made me feel better After all these years You still hold In sweeping letters And secret code The words and wonder Of youthful love Before the plunder Of the Pirate Time Tore asunder Reason and Rhyme…
Category: Love
Come Before the Fall: Another Breakfast with Billy Wayne and Joe Eddy
Billy Wayne: “We met in grade school. She used to chase me around the playground trying to get a kiss. She said she wanted to be the first to kiss a future giant.”
Joe Eddy: “What are you? Six foot eight?”
Home is where the Hard is: 7 Pillars of a Happy Home
Seven Pillars of a Happy Home was originally shared on LinkedIn as Part Two of a two-part series on the home. Part One on this site can be found here. This is part two of a two-part mini-series on the home. In Part One – Home is Where the Hard Is: Seven Deadly Sins that…
Home is where the Hard is: 7 Deadly Sins that Kill Harmony in the Home
Seven deadly sins that will kill harmony in the home and may derail a marriage… (Originally shared on LinkedIn in my monthly Word Warrior newsletter.) I have been married (to the same person) for over 40 years. Still, I do not speak from authority as much as observation. I have broken enough rules, made sufficient…
Happily Ever After: A new way to look at a dream as old as time
Thanks to fairy tales and dreams of happiness and stability in relationships, the dream of happily ever after is the hope of every bride (and groom, as well, one hopes). I think, however, we too often fail to see the “after” part and its importance. A Personal Perspective on Ever After Our happily ever after…
My Faithful Valentine: a story of love
Last night Donya asked if I remembered what I gave her on that first Valentine’s Day we spent together. I did, sort of. I remembered I gave her a blouse or a dress or some such. (I am sure the mountainous, volatile, protective Tommy Weir was thrilled that the big-eared kid with the silk shirts…
The 60-Year Wedding Anniversary: A Milestone for the Mighty in Love
Tommy and Mary Weir, my in-laws(for 37 years and counting), are celebrating 60 years of marriage this very day. SIXTY! YEARS. This is a milestone not many of us will pass.You gotta get it right if you wanna get it done. To make it 60, you have to marry fairly young and really well and…
Like the rain: a retrospective of this life, love, and marriage
Marriage: Any relationship that stands the test of time must withstand its share of storms. It may have begun with sunshine and song, but the thunderstorms will soon roll in.
Marriage Doesn’t Work! Thirty-Five things I’ve learned in 35 years of marriage
Well, we made it. So far, so good. My beautiful wife Donya and I have been married 35 years today.Thirty-five years!We are one year shy of having been married twice as long as we had been living when we said, “I do.” (Sorry. I will be right back. I need to take a break and…
Good Grief! Is that possible?
“Good grief!” It’s one of those ironic, oxymoronic phrases that people have worked into their vocabulary to express incredulity at a thing or person. I don’t know its origin (unless it was Charlie Brown), but I have always been interested in the fact that the phrase even exists. Last night found my wife and I…
The greatest love poem ever written, or How to say “I love you” so they won’t forget
Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote one of the most beautiful, transcendent, enduring love poems in all of human history: How do I love thee? Let me count the ways. I love thee to the depth and breadth and height My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight For the ends of being and ideal grace….
After the Storm
Mumford and Sons is one of my favorite bands. Tonight, I was listening to”After the Storm” for the umpteenth time and for the first time, I really listened.I was struck by these lyrics in particular: And I won’t die alone and be left thereWell, I guess I’ll just go home, oh God knows whereBecause death…
Clubbin’ with the Cavemen (A word to girls about the nature of the hunter)
I was listening to smooth, dulcet tones of Norah Jones this morning when a song titled “Soon the New Day” came on. It is a collaboration with rapper Talib Kewli and has a nice vibe to it. It also has a stark, sobering message, if you really listen to it. Listen up, girls. I am…
Let’s hear it for the man! (The sincere sentiments of a grateful dad)
Before Edward Frys, one of America’s premiere cakers (that is my short word for cake maker & baker), proposed to my daughter Holly, he proposed to me. Like the gentleman he is, he took me to dinner to tell me that he loves my daughter, that she completes him, and that he intends to make…
Better than my worst: The truth about the Bad Boy Preacher’s Wife
Said the Bad Boy Preacher to his Wife: You have always been… sweeter than my sour hotter than my cool finer than my coarse calmer than my storm more faithful than my doubt prettier than my ugly Better than my worst You have always been… my antithesis my antidote my balance my cure Thank you….
September 3, 1983: A day that shall live inside of me
Dateline: Friday, September 2, 1983 The day began like any other day might, if that day included your being a ministry student living in the married couples’ dorms at Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri, married to your nine-months-pregnant, ready-to-pop high school sweetheart, father of a two year old toddling girl, facing five classes between…
Love is not a poem
[br] Love is not a feeling but nothing feels better than to love and be loved [br] Love is not an emotion but the emotions run wild, soar and ebb because of love [br] Love is not an action but no one springs to action like the one driven by love [br] Love is not…
Irony (or Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire)
I don’t miss you when we’re apart. I am just as well without you. I don’t need your approval. Your opinion doesn’t matter to me. You’re just another pretty face. There are plenty of fish in the sea. You aren’t the best thing about me. My every heartbeat doesn’t echo your name. I won’t love…
The Greybeard Chronicles: 50 Years of Sowing and Reaping
Listen up, kids! A half century goes by faster than you think. One minute, you’re doing a cannonball in the Brazos River. The next, you’re praying your wife does not put fifty candles on that carrot cake: Not just because of the potential wildfire they may ignite or the fact that you could singe…
Doctor Love’s Valentine’s Day Advice for Girls
Let me begin by saying I dislike Valentine’s Day and always have. I think an act of love on a random day for no particular reason has far more meaning than a bouquet of flowers, a box of candy, and a mushy card given on a day when you have no real choice but to…




