Guest Post at EXTRAordinary! Inc.

This week I have a guest post on EXTRAordinary! Inc., the website of an excellent friend, Rich Schlentz. I first met Rich after he hired my wife as a wellness coordinator for one of the health clubs in town. He and I didn't have much interaction at first, but over time, and over coffee, we came to know each other. I'm fortunate to have a lot of positive people in my life—it's no secret that I try to surround myself with them—but Rich is in a league of his own. The man has an unshakable positive outlook on life that is infectious. I learn something from him every time we talk.

If you know Rich already, you understand what I'm conveying. If you don't, I only hope you get the chance to know him one day. Click here to read my post, Wisdom to Know the Difference, but please make sure you check out the rest of Rich's insights while you are there.

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Guest Post on "Lessons from the Monk I Married."

I'm please to announce my guest post on Katherine Jenkin's blog, "Lessons from the Monk I Married." Katherine spent every single day of 2010 blogging about 365 lessons she had learned or hoped to learn. I thoroughly enjoyed reading her insights. 

On April 3, 2012, Seal Press/Perseus Books, will publish her book Lessons from the Monk I Married. Half love story, half spirtual guide, the book is her memoir about the 15-year journey with her husband, a former Buddhist monk.

I look forward to reading her book when it comes out. Click here to read my guest post, but be sure to check out the other writers featured on Katherine's blog during the month of January, as well as her other posts.

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Flawed Beauty

Several years ago I drove to a friend’s mountain cabin near West Jefferson for ten days to get my novel jump-started. I’d dabbled with the story for a while, writing a few scenes here and there, but I knew I needed uninterrupted time to get the thing in gear.

Writer friends had warned me to decompress for a day or two before diving into writing. I took that advice to the extreme. By the fifth day, I finally stopped avoiding the blank page and sat down to get serious. But doubt filled my head rather than words filling the pages. Who was I kidding, I wondered? Did I truly have the writing chops to pen a novel? How could I make this book fly with my limited experience and flawed discipline? Even if I finished a quarter of the book in the remaining days, how would it be possible to return to the real world to complete it given a packed schedule and the multiple obstacles life liked to hurl at me? I sat on the deck that day with pen and paper in the late April sun and instead of pushing through and making it work, I focused on my flaws as a writer and the imperfect writing environment that awaited on my return. At the end of the day only meaningless scribbles emerged.

By the middle of the sixth day, I could no longer tolerate the stench of the garbage I’d written so I grabbed my camera and drove to a nearby hiking trail to walk off my frustration. Taking photos of nature relaxes me. If I couldn’t find the perfect words, at least I hoped to find some perfect shots. The trail I chose had a sign at the entrance that gently warned of predators: black bears, bobcats, and snakes. Had I actually stacked up some good writing over those six days at the cabin, maybe I would have hesitated, but the thought of becoming a bear’s meal seemed more appealing at that moment than

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