| | |  AUTHOR  | | | |
 

MUSINGS FROM MICHAEL

“I suppose you could say I’ve always been a son of two worlds—the natural and the spiritual. It was the inevitable result of my upbringing, I realize now. What else could come of being raised close to the earth as I was, working the soil in the small towns of Texas where folks still live, for the most part, by the laws of decency and common sense…and at the same time growing up the son of a preacher, a man of God who spent his days opening windows to heaven, and imploring his flock to look up and see the reality of the divine at work in their ordinary lives. From early on, I learned to see the world with two sets of eyes.”

“It seems only natural to me that I became a writer. I needed a medium, a mechanism, to express the way I experienced the world. For some it’s art, for others music—for me, it was pen and ink. I’ve always been fascinated by the magic of words—their ability to carry you away to some other place, show you wonderful things you’ve never seen. But more than that, the real power of words rests in their ability to forge relationships across vast distances of space and time. To read authors like C.S. Lewis or A.W. Tozer, and through the writing actually come to know their hearts and minds, is a miraculous transaction that continues to astound me.”

“As for coaching—well, they say it’s rare to find one ‘dream job’ in a lifetime. But I’ve found two. As with writing, coaching has a power all its own—the power of a forged alliance between two willing souls working together toward a worthy goal. I love the synergy of it all, the creativity, the inspiration, and the work. My clients inspire me with their courage, and their willingness to move with passion and tenacity toward the life of their deepest dreams. There are few greater joys that I can imagine than watching my clients discover who they really are, and step into the bigger life they were meant to live with confidence and authenticity. My gift in that process comes in knowing that I was a part of that success.”

SOJOURNER TRAVELS

Check out the Photo Album to see some of my favorite snapshots from my travels.
 

FAVORITE QUOTES

“Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.” --Ayn Rand                                                      

 

 

 

 

My response to the proverbial "What are your top three favorite _____?"

Books
 • The Lord of the Rings
    Trilogy (3-in-1 volume)
 • The Bible
 • My own journal

Musical Artists
 • U2
 • Sting
 • Jars of Clay

Movies
 • The Lord of the Rings
    Trilogy (who knew?)
 • The Matrix
 • Legends of the Fall

Heroes
 • J.R.R. Tolkien
 • John Eldredge
 • Jesus Christ

Outdoor Activities
 • Windsurfing
 • Biking
 • Wilderness Camping

Little things that make me smile
 • Wind in the trees
 • Coffee and friendship
    on cloudy days
 • Smoking a pipe in the
    wilderness

 

“We can live any way we want. People take vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience—even of silence—by choice. The thing is to stalk your calling in a certain skilled and supple way, to locate the most tender and live spot and plug into that pulse…I think it would be well, and proper, and obedient, and pure, to grasp your one necessity and not let it go, to dangle from it limp wherever it takes you.”--Annie Dillard

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, and fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to manifest the glory that is within us. And as we let our light shine we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”--Marianne Williamson