8-27-14 | The task of writing a book sometimes feels so overwhelming that I could see it tipping me over the edge into despair. What keeps me sane and gets me through it is a belief I have. It may sound weird, but it is the singular faith that pulls me through every difficult stretch and dark time in the writing process: To me, the finished story already exists.

8-19-14 | I have a formal job description as husband: it is my professional responsibility to make my wife laugh. It is a duty I take very seriously.

8-12-14 | “Turn the other cheek” isn’t a cover for denying your feelings or wimping out. It’s a smart tactical tool for effective living.

8-5-14 | Our wedding anniversary (#6) is coming in three days. If you’ve been following this blog for a while, you might know this date has been, well, sort a hit-or-miss thing.

7-29-14 | Outside my study window, our garden is visited constantly by birds. Cardinals, redpolls, finches, doves, grackles, catbirds, downy woodpeckers, flickers, evening grosbeaks, bluebirds, owls, even two big gorgeous hawks. This week, they have become my muse, because they know how to do something that I needed to learn.

7-22-14 | This week a sad thing happened: it was announced that some 12,500 employees are being laid off at Microsoft’s devices unit. What elevated this event from merely a shame to an outrage, and at the same time a sort of uneasily, weirdly hilarious outrage, was the way they found out.

7-8-14 | When my older son Nick was a toddler, he used to sit in the kitchen and smash trucks. It went like this: