Happy Thanksgiving! Take a walk. Look closer. (Can you find the Thanksgiving guest in the photo below?) Set aside your troubles. Marvel at the little treasures in nature. Appreciate the days. Don't be afraid. Enjoy the beauty around you. Celebrate the harvest. Gasp at God's glorious creation. Let your light shine. Spend time with friends … Continue reading Happy Thanksgiving 2018!
“‘But,’ said his father, stopping in front of the drawing-room window, ‘it won’t be fine.’” Virginia Woolf, To the Lighthouse The day to begin the tile repair arrived… and so did the thunder, lightening, a downpour, and three tornado emergency alerts. Since the fateful … Continue reading All in a Day… or Two
Curse or coincidence, who is to say? Friends and family know that when I travel, have out-of-town guests, or plan a party, a weather event occurs — often an apocalyptic weather event. This is not an exaggeration. A volcano eruption, several tropical storms, too many unexpected downpours, and a 500-year flood are example interruptions to my … Continue reading A Flood of Tears, But Not for the Flood
The steers were agitated, squaring off and shoving each other while butting their heads and stamping in circles. The ruckus was an all out longhorn brawl. With our eyes wide and our mouths open, Jimmy and I perched on top of the dam — somehow believing twenty sloped feet between us and the fighting longhorns … Continue reading Meet Sweet Ferdinand: All 102″ TTT
"The afternoon knows what the morning never suspected." — Robert Frost Like an alarm bell, the sprouting sedums announce the passage of time. Could it be more than a year since the first post on Take Comfort? I had three reasons to start this blog: To share stories with my kids; to challenge myself … Continue reading Take Comfort: A Year Flew Softly By
Six glass doors fifteen feet from the dining table line the back wall of our home in San Antonio. Once the dark of night arrives, the uninterrupted glass panels reflect into the room like a black mirror. As we ate dinner, having returned from the grocery store only an hour before in a bitter cold … Continue reading That was Unexpected!
It frightened me — watching the engineer at work. Adept, skilled, and determined, and very much unsettling. No, not this spider, patterned in colors of Halloween, intricately weaving a web to ensnare a meal. The engineer in my nightmare was the specialist at the genius bar, donned in an Apple Store t-shirt, decisively launching programs … Continue reading What a Fright!
“Longhorns are the joy of my life.” What does a father do when his 10-year-old daughter comes home from school with a poem that begins this way? Jim prints the poem on a photo of one of the ranch longhorns, frames it, and presents it as a present to Alexandra. What does a grandfather do … Continue reading How an 1800lb Animal Can Comfort Your Life
Arrival: Definition 1. an act of arriving; a coming. 2. the reaching or attainment of any object or condition. 3. the person or thing that arrives or has arrived. Recall your emotion as you approach a favorite destination: the moment along the interstate when the city skyline comes into view on the horizon, walking off … Continue reading Arrive at The Lost Madrone Ranch