A long-time friend who Gina and I have had the joy to reconnect with since we moved to Dunedin and who was formerly a member at First Baptist Church Indian Rocks (a church in close proximity to our current home and church #4 in my memoir “Renaissance Redneck”) told us that several members of that […]
Author: randy
Encouraging people to find out who they are so they can live their lives fully.
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What Will The Future Bring?
A question as old as time. In moments of peace and well-being, this query occupies less of our thinking. But historically, in times of political, emotional, and spiritual chaos our eyes turn with anxious hope to the future, particularly when apocalyptic fears multiply. This question was asked by the people of Israel when subjected to […]
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Cruelty Has Never Made Me Smile
I remember crying and running from the room as the small black and white television in my grandmother’s home beamed a fuzzy rendition of men beating each other to a pulp on “Live Wrestling.” The year was around 1963 and I was five years old. My Dad (a gentle man) and my grandfather (a brawler […]
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From Fundamentalism to Freedom
It is still a shock to my system when I encounter a person who is fundamentalist or evangelical. The experience is much like a friend of mine who served in Vietnam when he would have a flashback. Psychologist Marlene Winell has coined a term for the devastating effects on those of us who have left […]
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My Top Ten Books of the Decade
You can tell a lot about a person by knowing the books they read—and particularly the books that impact their lives. That is one reason I love the goodreads.com community. Founded in 2006, the online community provides a world of insight into my fellow book lovers. For a person that is a voracious reader, Goodreads […]
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Family Is NOT Everything
A few impromptu thoughts about family the day after Thanksgiving. We should not beat ourselves up for the depression and dejection many of us feel this morning. The western civilization (and in my case, the evangelical Christian) ideal of family is flawed and false. Rather than a day of gratefulness, for an alarming number of […]
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Loveless Children
Some children cannot love their fathers. They find them annoying. Or embarrassing. Or unsettling. They’re irritated by their fathers because they’ve turned out differently than they had expected. They’re irritated because the father refused their mother’s wish to patch up the marriage when there was nothing left to patch up, refused her means of prolonging […]
I read books every day. It’s a sickness. I’ve tried therapy but I’m afraid it’s untreatable. It may be hard to believe, but for fifty-six of my sixty-one years, I have rarely if ever missed a day. Over these past five decades, a reading cycle has emerged. I read for sheer pleasure in bed at […]
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FOMO
Now that Gina and I have returned to civilization and downtown living after almost five years in the isolated wilderness of the Appalachian foothills, we have coined a new phrase. FOMO. It’s an acrostic for the Fear of Missing Out. To adequately place this in a proper perspective, you must know that our country home […]
A four-part guided experience spanning four months offered by Creative Community, Inc and made possible in part by a gift from the Rod and Eileen Rachinski Trust. Three monthly online 60-90 minute sessions culminating with a gathering at Kalien Retreat near Nashville. Limited to three people per experience and only four experiences will be offered […]