Music has always set a tone for my life. No, I mean literally set a tone--not just in the happy, crazy times but, most importantly for me, in the lost, fragile times. Music moves my heart to compassion and action. I remember the first time I heard Gian Carlo Menotti’s “Amahl and the Night Visitors” as a high school student. I couldn’t get over the beauty. The artwork that accompanied the front of the music score drove me to search for weeks until I was able to obtain a copy o

Do you remember that one book that you read early in your life that changed the way you looked at the world? That book. I do. It was called Too Old To Cry, Too Young To Die. I know. A bit deep, right? Well, I read it in college. I think I bought it at a book fair because it grabbed my attention. Why in the world would a book about children dying early catch my attention? That seems so dark. But, I bought it. I read it over and over again bringing myself to tears each time. It

The sofa in our bedroom was covered with clean laundry just waiting to be put away. It just needed 30 minutes of my time, but I didn’t have it. Folding laundry was not anywhere on my list that day. A girlfriend called to check up on me. I cannot remember if she sensed something on the phone, or just knew after we talked that she needed to show up at my door. I was so embarrassed when she saw the unfolded laundry. I was tired so the shame probably did not hit as deeply as it n

By Chris Henderson I’m writing this because every year February 6th happens. That’s not surprising—like every day, it recurs yearly. It’s just that February 6th is the day for me that changed possibilities into finalities. We live our lives with opportunities—with the future staring at us daily to be experienced for better and for worse. It’s never one or the other; it’s always “both and.” Some days we awaken and imagine that that day will truly be a “better” day. And, yes,

Oh, Texas, my beloved Texas. Where art thou? Covered in two thick blankets of snow and a freeze to rival the most catastrophic . . .