tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16418251786182300642026-08-10T14:17:47.669-07:00The roles we take on in our lives are fascinating, causing us to ever maneuver ourselves in order to keep the balance. This blog is an investigation, a meditation, on all of the roles we choose, and some we don't. Every day is an adventure if we are open to it.Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.comBlogger450125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-36750787229638467752018-01-02T23:45:00.004-08:002018-01-02T23:45:53.346-08:00

I am my own worst enemy.  I sabotage myself all the time, and the worst part of it all is that I oftentimes have very good "reasons" for it.  It is the worst form of cowardice..."justified" cowardice.  It requires that I blame others, my life, my job, my circumstances, instead of taking a deep, powerful, and, yes, terrifying look inside myself.  I am a grown man capable

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-8880097120527158132017-07-31T09:00:00.000-07:002017-07-31T09:00:10.921-07:00

I am so thick it is laughable.  Honestly, if it didn't cause me so much pain, I'd laugh too.  In fact, when I finally am able to learn something, I often do laugh at myself.  I am so consistently wrong that it amazes me that I still often think I am right. Where is this coming from?   You have "The Incredible Jessica James" to blame.   I watched this movie

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-60299914444093689012017-07-28T15:59:00.004-07:002017-07-28T15:59:53.797-07:00

Thanks for the quote, Bob Marley!!! I'm a monster. My love makes me a monster. My use of love for my own purposes makes me a monster. This post is going to be hard for me, but it is one that I must finish.  Before I begin, let me emphatically state that this post is about me and my capacity for love, and NOT the objects of my love.  This is an introspection and not an accusation.

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-28377402639846551992017-07-25T15:09:00.001-07:002017-07-25T15:09:34.736-07:00

The View from my cabin at Odell Lake I just got back from a short 4-day vacation at Shelter Cove Resort at Odell Lake in central Oregon.  It was 4 days without cell service, without alarm clocks, without commutes, work days, and all the accoutrement that goes with the modern life.  Here are 3 things I was able to take away from those 4 days. 1. No one but me will defend my time.

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-6146340307315561252017-07-10T15:33:00.001-07:002017-07-10T15:33:12.291-07:00

Image Sourced From all-free-download.com As a result of reading The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck by blogger Mark Manson, I've been thinking about the idea of pleasure lately.  Pleasure is a large word to throw out there, but I will be using it in this blog post to address physical pleasures (i.e. food, drink, sex, etc).  In reading Manson's book, I've been thinking about

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-34082373303524085912017-07-07T01:10:00.002-07:002017-07-07T01:11:49.963-07:00

My Agent for Change It has been a couple of days since I last posted here, where I revealed a personal truth about myself, about my enduring depression, and it's been a couple of hard days.  My work life is at the peak of our high season, with lots of additional responsibility coming down the pipe.  It has also been a time of doubling down on my new outlook.  I've decided to "

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-8120397903394539642017-06-29T15:48:00.001-07:002017-06-29T15:48:58.740-07:00

Life is good when working from the patio. It's been months since I've posted here, and I can tell you exactly why.  I've been silently, ashamedly unintentionally intentionally miserable.  The last year has seen me working against myself in almost every single way imaginable.  I have been doing NOTHING for myself.  I've been working as little as possible on the things I

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-31720691701827040942017-06-29T15:27:00.002-07:002017-06-29T15:27:46.767-07:00

***I tried this experiment with Shea a couple of months back and forgot to post.  Here it is.*** We've been talking a bit about feelings in the Lang household these days, and it isn't always an easy go.  I've got a 10 year-old girl who is going through lots of different things in her life, and I always want to be close to her.  She expressed some interest in blogging with me and

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-54257659108942061792016-07-29T01:30:00.001-07:002016-07-29T01:35:38.217-07:00

Image Courtesy of Pinterest Hello, two am.  It's me.  I'm here again.  I hope you remember me.  It's not the first time we've met.  Not by a longshot. I've been up writing for a while now, and watching first episodes of television shows I like.  I've got the bug.  The "I've-got-to-get-this-down-now-while-I-can" kind of bug that feels like heat, like fire,

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-43200633946361034582016-06-16T10:38:00.002-07:002016-06-16T10:45:53.984-07:00

Image Source The universe has been calling me.  It happens to me more than I like to admit, but lately it has been a full court press.  I don't know if others experience this phenomenon the same way I do, but my life has a way of reminding me what I'm supposed to be doing when I lose my way.  These calls often come in the form of chance encounters, unforeseeable opportunities,

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-47780962956187696352016-06-14T23:54:00.004-07:002016-06-16T12:20:36.904-07:00

Image Courtesy of Massapequa Observer The other night I spent two hours "opting out" of email notifications, social network notifications, and unsubscribing from email lists.  It took me two hours and I still have more work to do. Part of what got me into this trap in the first place was either not thinking about these kinds of things when I signed up for a new social media platform, or

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-64101926305653716032016-06-13T01:26:00.002-07:002016-06-13T01:26:59.796-07:00

It's been a little under two years since my daughter asked to try to ride a bike.  Lately, she has witnessed more and more of her friends getting proficient at riding, and I think it finally piqued her curiosity enough to give it another go. My wife told me, "You better put those training wheels back on for a minute.  It's been a long time."  So, I listened as my wife is often

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-61356082771954554242016-06-07T02:20:00.001-07:002016-06-07T02:27:14.891-07:00

My last post on this blog was on December 7th, 2015.  Six months ago.  Much like a New Year's resolution to hit the gym, recommiting to the a creative endeavor can be fraught with much of the same personal pitfalls.  How many of us have told ourselves we are going to get in shape this year, to hit the gym three times a week, and then failed to show after week 3?  I know I have

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-41384412276591915712015-12-07T13:58:00.000-08:002015-12-07T13:58:44.828-08:00

To borrow a line from the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother, "Haaaaaaaaaaave you met Ted?" Ted Ramsey is a newer edition to the Wild Hare family, and I've had the pleasure of getting to know him over the past couple of months.  He's a vivacious, pleasant young man who is quick to smile and quick to engage with other people, but I didn't really get to know this young man until I sat down

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-34470692718937134292015-10-27T02:35:00.001-07:002015-10-27T02:35:51.324-07:00

When I picked Shea up from school today, we set off for home and had our daily small talk.  We covered our usual topics of school, play, her friends, etc.  We then set the agenda for the day.  We were going to go to the store and then return home for homework.  We agreed that both of us were going to do our homework.  She had a composition to write, and, guess what? &nbsp

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-48918197349742405902015-09-30T14:09:00.002-07:002015-09-30T19:13:14.754-07:00

It has been a long time since I've posted on my blog.  I've been undergoing a phase of personal transformation, and I didn't feel steady enough to post here, but recently my mind has turned more and more to the blog.  Today, my mind locked on an idea that I finally felt compelled to bring to the page.  Here goes... I've been making a lot of changes in my life recently.  

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-18153342583143087202014-12-30T17:39:00.000-08:002014-12-30T17:39:00.526-08:00

In 2014, I took on the task of fulfilling 52 promises over the course of a year.  It was meant to be a promise a week.  In the end, I failed to keep the timeline and I eventually lost track of the task.  That isn't to say that I failed utterly though, for there were some interesting things that arose as a result, and I think I can trace many of them back to the 52 promises. First

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-25617729292469989362014-07-15T12:09:00.000-07:002014-07-15T12:12:55.013-07:00

I'm fascinated by the idea of modern masculinity.  The idea appears again and again in this blog, but it also appears repeatedly in my fiction.  Even when I'm working through an idea that is, at least on the surface, not about this theme, it finds a way to exist in between the lines of my creative work. Image Source On my way home yesterday, I had the pleasure of listening to an

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-36017864254311735112014-07-11T10:27:00.001-07:002014-07-11T10:27:43.073-07:00

I've been offline for a couple of weeks now.  This hasn't necessarily been intentional, but it has been necessary.  I recently had a health scare that sent me spiraling into a pit of anxiety, covering all the necessary stops through denial/isolation, bargaining, etc. It was a lump. I found a lump on/near one of my testicles. It scared the hell out of me.  This was weeks ago. &

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-4519949848316657592014-06-23T13:45:00.000-07:002014-06-23T13:45:23.850-07:00

The day has arrived!  The day where all the days of teaching Composition finally pay off.  I am teaching a fiction workshop this summer at PCC, and I couldn't be happier about it.  I've had the opportunity to teach workshops before at PCC, but this summer feels like serendipity, a coincidence of the fates that conspired to allow me to dive into craft at a moment when I am feeling a

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-72336336485025612642014-06-21T12:39:00.001-07:002014-06-21T12:39:05.516-07:00

My last promise found me escaping my own neuroses by positioning myself inside an elemental force of nature in the form of Wahclella Falls, but I was soon to have an encounter with another natural force: thirty seven-year-olds. The end of the school year has arrived, and first grade has come and gone quicker than I would like.  As such, the end of the school year party for my daughter

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-86028001674745111662014-06-16T16:52:00.001-07:002014-06-16T16:52:25.290-07:00

The last two days have been a whirlwind of essays, late assignments, grades, rubrics, spreadsheets, and exhaustion.  Even in the wee hours of Father's Day, I found myself at the screen, responding to emails, grading online assignments, and drying out my eyeballs. But... It is done!  Grades were submitted this afternoon and the term has been put to rest.  As a treat, I allowed

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-88782409782654846472014-06-13T11:22:00.001-07:002014-06-13T11:22:18.048-07:00

The last promise I drew was to find 3 hours to spend with myself.  It's hard as a father, husband, teacher, and bartender to carve out these little niches of time, so I had to drop everything on Tuesday and rush out of the house in order to get it in.  This meant leaving stacks of grading left ungraded in my bag and rushing out in order to be back in time to get my daughter, but I

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-52470937370336681782014-06-10T11:39:00.000-07:002014-06-10T11:39:24.796-07:00

I've been feeling a bit disconnected from Shea lately, like I've been working too much and not having enough unstructured time with her.  Unstructured time is the cornerstone of our relationship.  With so much always going on with the family, I've always taken it upon myself to make sure to spend those aimless afternoons with her without an agenda.  Tonight, I found some of that

Family Promises - An Experiment in Commitmenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18064350721611052904noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1641825178618230064.post-27433920118455101282014-06-08T14:59:00.000-07:002014-06-08T14:59:02.037-07:00

Electric hedge trimmers, sledgehammer, power drill, the dump, demolition.  These are just some of the things I encountered yesterday while working around my house.  After I woke up and got going, my wife asked if we could spend the day trimming the 10 foot hedges that border our backyard.  I groaned as I didn't want to work away the afternoon in the yard, but it turned out that I

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