• Reflections - Travel

    Business or Pleasure (Part 5)

    As I continued my journey of meeting people in real life, I was reminded just how messy life can be for some people.  Even though I am quickly approaching 30 trips around our Sun, I keep my life very simple in many regards.  My introverted personality and my core values based on my Faith keep me pretty well protected from some of the normal drama that enters people’s lives.  I am mostly concerned with what is considered unsafe, as judging others is not my job, especially as a Christian. You cannot change someone’s life habits in a day and sometimes not…

  • Reflections - Travel

    Business or Pleasure (Part 4)

    I had really no idea how enlightening the trip to Phoenix would be until I returned back home.  While I like to think my observations are pretty spot-on, first impressions can be deceiving. Compared to the larger locations and airports, Jacksonville does seem quite small at times.  I was happy to see that my gate was in a similar area as my last outgoing flight.  The airport was buzzing with chatter, boarding calls, and automated announcements.  In the plethora of noise, I found these two older women speaking to each other.  I would assume there had been friends for many years.  They spoke in a…

  • Reflections - Travel

    Business or Pleasure (Part 3)

    I’m happy to say that the flight to Dallas was very smooth, which was a pleasant change from my last experience.  We arrived and I took an Uber to the Airbnb house that I had booked.  On the way there, I was already looking up hotels, just in case.  I arrived to a beautiful neighborhood of large brick houses.  The owners of the house were present to greet me and swap travel “war” stories.  I settled into my private room (with a lock) and just breathed.  I knew that Airbnb was a good choice and I am happy I didn’t…

  • Reflections

    Movie Magic

    I just finished watching The Greatest Showman again and I get something new from it every time.  This time was a thought about how the children in the movie really made an impact on the confidence of the performers.  Even in the modern and progressive time that we currently live, we find similar separation.  The idea of someone or something being different scares many people.  This is an ongoing challenge as some of this is hardwired from our ancient days of surviving on our wits and simple tools.  In a more complex system, we are able to build walls, physical and digital, to keep these “strange”…