To my incredible partner in life, and my best friend, for leading me out of the darkness of mental illness and into the light with her love and understanding.
To my beautiful children for grounding me and giving my life purpose.
To my parents for whom I never doubted their love for me.
To my brother for helping to shape my childhood and who has become closer to me with every passing year.
To my extended family and friends for being a part of my life and helping to make me who I am today.
To my doctors for treating me with compassion, and an open mind.
And to my god for guiding me on this journey.
I love you all.
Music
“Humble and Kind” – Tim McGraw: For inspiring a post on what governments can be.
“Send Me an Angel” – Scorpions: For singing that our hearts can speak to us. As can Their heart.
“Imagine” – John Lennon: For making me ponder the possibilities.
“Most People Are Good” – Luke Bryan: For your beliefs, and your humanity.
“Be a Light” – Thomas Rhett, et. al: For simple but powerful truths.
“Secret Garden” – Bruce Springsteen: For baring your soul to speak of emotional intimacy.
“Feels Like Home” – Chantal Kreviazuk: For giving my partner, and I, our song.
“Higher Love” – Kygo, Whitney Houston: For providing us an anthem about a higher love. It made me think.
“The Greatest Love of All” – Whitney Houston: For giving me the name of my god.
“Perfect” – Ed Sheeran: For a wonderful name to a beautiful song
“Somebody” – Depeche Mode: For singing that we can love someone even when our views differ. Different perspectives strengthen and enrich our relationships and our World.
“Boston & St. Johns” – Great Big Sea: For singing most tenderly about the vulnerability of love.
“Everybody Hurts” – R.E.M: For writing a powerful ballad to help soothe tortured souls.
“What a Wonderful World” – Louis Armstrong: For focusing first and foremost on the beauty in this World.
“Where Were You” – Alan Jackson: For reminding me that hate can only be conquered through love, and then echoing 1 Corinthians 13:13 and giving this site its tagline.
“Heaven” – Kane Brown: For questioning whether our most beautiful moments are not meant for the heavens, but instead for right here on Earth.
“I Could Not Ask For More” – Edwin McCain: For singing that the love in this World can be more than enough.
“I Believe” – Nikki Yanofsky: For singing an inspiring anthem about believing in the power when people come together.
“Tears In Heaven” – Eric Clapton: For asking what the heavens could be. It made me think.
“Coward of the County” – Kenny Rogers: For saying aloud that sometimes we must fight for love.
“I Do It For You” – Bryan Adams: For your declaration that it is worth dying for.
“Pride” – U2: For singing passionately about a message of love delivered to us by a King.
“I Believe” – Blessid Union Of Souls: For providing me the answer when I wasn’t sure.
“Here I am Lord” – Chris Bray: For helping me find the courage to go where my god was leading me.
“Yahweh You Are Near” – St. Louis Jesuits: For giving me strength when I felt weak.
“Be not Afraid” – St Laurence’s Church Chorley: For helping dry my tears when I felt most alone.
“Violet in the Snow” – Our Lady of Lakes Christmas Choir: For providing me a beautiful song that I would sing to my young children at bedtime. It was always thoroughly enjoyed.
Podcasts
“Did Jesus Think He Was The Messiah” – Dr. Bart Ehrman: For devoting his work to presenting a historical picture of Jesus with honesty and integrity. It made me think.
Film
“A Good Person” – Morgan Freeman: For helping to point me away from determinism: a clockwork Universe without a soul.
“A Beautiful Mind” – Russell Crowe & Jennifer Connelly: For expressing my thoughts better than I ever could.
“I Have A Dream” – Martin Luther King Jr.: For dreaming about what your country can be and then helping to guide it towards that vision.
President John F. Kennedy on the Apollo Moon Mission: For looking outward, into the space beyond.
President Barack Obama on Marriage Equality: For acknowledging that love is love.
President Joe Biden on the 80th anniversary of the D-Day invasion: For reminding us about the ideals that are worth fighting, dying and even killing for.
A Love Story 