Snow fell on Texas last week as temperatures dropped to zero shutting down large swaths of North Texas.  To say that this is unusual is an understatement.  I wrote a friend of mine to see how he and his family were holding up and he said, “We have been without power for about 36 hours.”  My instinct was to express remorse that his family was going through a challenging time, but before I could even respond to his text he added, “It’s okay though.  My wife, kids and I have been playing board games, doing puzzle’s and listening to music. 

I have always found it interesting how my life has led me to this current stage of life.  I grew up in a small town in Iowa that was settled on the Mississippi River.  Life in Iowa was consistently non-eventful; the people were hard-working, kind and not demonstrative in the least.  From a very young age I felt a burning desire to become a stand-up comedy.  Almost everyone told me that my dream wasn’t possible.  Although I never took anyone’s doubt seriously, I always considered it strange that people didn’t think it was possible for me, or anyone for that

As the winter nights while away and the dawn of spring approaches, I am left feeling contemplative.  The world’s wonderment lays before my eyes and I fundamentally understand that both beauty and chaos can be perceived by those very eyes.  I have come to understand it is I that must seek the very beauty that exists everywhere in the world.  In the face of the chaos, I must perceive the beauty because the beauty of the world has been ignored for far too long.  Too many of us find triumph in the defeat of others, pleasure in the pain of