The Wake-Up Call That Changes Everything Dave Rodriguez sat in his car outside the gym, tears streaming down his face. It wasn’t pain that made him emotional. It was gratitude. Three months earlier, he’d nearly died from pulmonary embolisms, blood clots that had traveled to both lungs. One in three people don’t survive that. Now,...Read More

The Four-Step Framework for Getting 1% Better in Any Area of Life You know your life could be better. Maybe it’s your health, your relationships, your finances, or just the nagging feeling that you’re stuck. But knowing you need to change and actually making it happen are two very different things. Most people stay trapped...Read More

The Village That Never Looked Upstream There’s a village beside a river where babies keep floating by. One villager spots the first baby and rushes in to save it. Then another baby appears. And another. Soon the entire village is mobilized around rescue operations, taking care of babies, finding them homes, managing the crisis. It...Read More

The Chaos I Walked Into I walked into an ICU unit expecting a quiet pastoral visit. What I found was absolute chaos. The man I came to see was on a gurney, head tilted down, blood pressure plummeting. Doctors and nurses surrounded him, shouting orders, machines beeping frantically. They were doing everything they could to...Read More

The Crisis Behind Closed Doors Picture this: You walk into an ICU unit expecting a quiet conversation, but instead you’re hit with absolute chaos. Doctors and nurses surrounding a dying man. His mother-in-law on her knees praying in tongues at the top of her lungs. His father ten feet away dropping F-bombs and screaming at...Read More

I could not get my breath. I had climbed the stairway into the office complex countless times, but this was the first time I was winded by it. I tried to engage in small talk with the receptionist, but I. could. not. breathe. Strange. Also strange was my throbbing calf muscle, but I was able...Read More

“We can not only change our relationship with pain, we can change pain itself.” Sanjay Gupta, M.D., It Doesn’t Have to Hurt That excerpt from Dr. Gupta’s new book got my attention! He elaborated on that claim by adding, “Pain and suffering can present in infinite ways, and yet we have tremendous control in choosing...Read More

She held my hand for 10 seconds. Tops. But it had a significant impact on me. Last month I went in for a surgical procedure (one of many lately). I’m used to the drill. Get wheeled into the room, slide off the gurney onto the bed, anesthetic hooked up to the line in my hand,...Read More

My sister was going through some old pictures recently and found one I had apparently sent her years ago. She texted me the photo and I laughed when I saw it. It was me in 1976, on stage with a boy band…er…male quartet …I travelled the country with. The longer I looked at the pic...Read More

I was so scared of him that when I recognized his footfall coming down the stairs toward my office, I would lock the door, pull the shade, turn out the lights and hide. Did I mention I was a grown, 25-year-old man? It was my first full-time employment which, in many ways, I enjoyed. I...Read More