Marshall's Blog

 Graduates you are about to embark on a new chapter of your life. You will not feel any different than you do today, but you will have the world open itself up to you in ways you don’t even know yet. Even if you do not change addresses or immediately pack your bags ahead of graduation, people will begin to place you in a different category in their expectations of you, and for that you have absolutely no control. That is the amazing and terrifying fact of growing up. And by growing up you are about to realize a few things as you make your way in this world. That every decision, good and bad comes with a cost. That relationships grow and shrink with the time and effort that we put into them. That being overwhelmed does not stop the world from turning and time marches on regardless of our readiness to meet its demands. With any luck you will find friendship and enmity, love and heartbreak, success and failure, people that love you no matter what, and people that never seem to be im...

     " Knowing that we can be loved exactly as we are gives us all the best opportunity for growing into the healthiest of people." Fred Rogers        Sometimes it is difficult to attribute our struggles to our heroes. Personally, I don't think of Fred Rogers losing patience experiencing anxiety, anger, or even just getting burnt out. When you read up on Fred he has so many good coping strategies and was beloved by so many, that I struggle to see that he ever struggled, but he must have. He didn't take it out of those that he served and served with, but running a non-profit public broadcast show during a recession, without congressional support, and with the eyes of the world on you does not seem like a recipe for an easy-breezy no stress life. It seems again and again that Fred Rodgers was seen by the world by his orientation towards caring and serving others.     There are several problems with my view of Fred Rodgers. I didn't know hi...

 Only Jesus can take a dead thing and make it alive. Only the Living God can take a dead thing and make it alive. Stop expecting people or things without that power to make you feel alive.

 Elevation is about perspective. There is a reason that we measure it from Sea Level rather than some other arbitrary point in the Earth. There is a really great article from National Geographic on Sea Level, why we use it even though it is not actually the exact same throughout the globe, I've provided the link below. I have lived just a couple hundred feet above sea level, and 4800 ft above sea level, the cooking is different, the baking is different, and it is a whole lot easier to dehydrate at 4800 ft. Other than that it is nigh impossible to tell where you are at elevation wise in the "flat places." Even at 4800 ft the flat places are still flat. Unless you can see to the ocean somehow, your perspective will always need to adjust based on what you are told. This weekend I am taking a group of teenagers accustomed to living in South Texas where it is mostly flat and sloping to the ocean. We are going to be talking about elevation sickness before the trip, on the trip ...

Its starting again. The long process toward meaningful change. What do you do if you know how long the journey is, and you are already tired. Almost like you are crossing the desert and after the car starts you watch the needle drop to E. At that point its not if you will stop and get stuck, but when you will stop and get stuck. The desert seems to stretch out forever and shimmer on the horizon. You check your canteen and find that its not empty, but it is no where near full.  The only way forward, to make it is across, is to drive through and when that ceases to be possible, to hike through. Do you dare shift gears and depress the gas pedal as your truck shutters forward? Faith seems so elusive sometimes. It is easy to tout faith when you've got air-conditioning and know when the next stop is for Gas. But thankfully faith is not measured when we have enough, when we are strong enough, smart enough, nice enough, or even put together. It is measured by the times we move forward with...

      There's warmth and light emanating from the glass double doors. You can almost hear the laughter and conversation echoing inside. Juxtapose that against the angry echo chambers online, the sympathy, lack of sympathy, and sensational news reports dinging phones and constantly reminding  us that this is the largest scale winter disaster in over 30 years. The hows are pitted against the whys today. How can we help versus why did this happen. I can tell you as a returning resident of Texas and a joyful member of the hows today, it is a much better place to be. There will always be time for whys later, people to hold accountable, systems to change, and policies to retool. We have plenty to discuss and lots of time that can be wasted online, and more feedback than you could ever dream of, and on Social Media nothing is demanded of us more than our time and attention. Community demands more than that, but also gives us something that is not exactly available on I...

      Fighting is how we get closer. This seems like a contradictory statement right. Especially if you have been privy to an argument that led to someone leaving or terminating a relationship. After an experience like that, it is certainly understandable that arguing, shouting, and disagreements can be the trigger that convinces us something is about to change, typically for the worse. I grew up in two different households with two very different conflict styles. One had conflict seldom and always on the surface level, and the other had conflict constantly on the surface level and occasionally the deep very long arguments that seemed to never end. To be honest, I became an expert of avoidance in one household, and an argument closer in the other. I found that retreat and despair were very effective in the non-confrontational environment, both meant I never had to have a real conversation. In the conflict rich environment, I found that I could save up my anger to rol...