Tag: Motivation

A Life Built Between Covers

June 26th, 2026

If someone were to ask me where I learned the bulk of what I know, I would say without hesitation that I learned it from books. The closest thing to sitting down and absorbing knowledge, to bending the ear of philosophers, intellectuals, dreamers, artisans, theologians, scientists, motivators, achievers, and gurus, is found within the pages of a book. Books renew the mind. They open new neural pathways and expand understanding. They introduce people to concepts that may have never crossed their mental threshold. They serve as passports to lands many will never visit.

Where It Began

My parents instilled in me a love for reading. If you listen to my dad tell it, I have been reading since I was an infant, or at least being read to. He holds onto this memory of reading me the dictionary. I cannot say for certain if that is true or simply a beautiful exaggeration. That is hardly the point. Whether that moment was the spark or the fire was already there, books have always been a steady companion.

At the age of seven or eight, I got my first library card. My excitement was uncontainable. I would check out twenty books a week and devour every one. I met everyone from Beverly Cleary’s Ramona and Beezus to E. B. White’s Charlotte. In my teenage years, Stephen King became my muse. Every book I could get my hands on, I read. One of the longest books I tackled was his massive work, The Stand. That same book now sits on my shelf, a gift from a dear friend. To this day, I love to read, and I have been fortunate enough to turn that love into my occupation, a reader’s dream.

The Decline of Reading

The love for reading has become a rarity. People will not pick up a book. They fear it. They loathe it. They say they do not have the focus. Their minds close to it. Sadly, that extends even to members of my own family. I do not know if there is a way to ignite that fire in someone. I am not sure you can create a flame where there is no kindling. It is something I reflect on often.

There is a quote, and I am not certain who said it, that if you want to hide something from someone, put it in a book. There is a painful truth in that. I have seen it with my own eyes. The world exists at our fingertips. Knowledge is ours for the taking. We simply have to be willing to reach for it and give it our time.

Watching Wisdom Form

Sometimes I look at my eight-year-old in wonder. There are moments when he speaks with a wisdom beyond his years. He considers ideas I would not have entertained at his age. I do understand that wisdom is a gift. It is often earned through experience and shaped through reflection and understanding. Sometimes that understanding is taught. Sometimes it is sparked. That is a conversation all its own.

A Moment with Despereaux

Tale of Desperaux (Film) Robert Dinero as Roscuro. Image Source: IMDB

But back to this moment.

I sat with my son to read The Tale of Despereaux, a book assigned for his English class. We alternated chapters. It is a practice that allows us to spend time together while strengthening his fluency, comprehension, and overall understanding. It matters, and I sometimes wish we did it more.

On this particular day, we came across a passage where two rats were talking, and one suggested that the meaning of life is suffering. The passage comes from chapter 16 of the work.

As Roscuro sits and calms his beating heart, he can still see the flame dancing before his eyes, and he repeats one word to himself: light. After this, Roscuro becomes abnormally interested in light. He longs for light deep in his soul, and he starts to think it is what gives life its meaning. But when Roscuro tells his elderly rat friend Botticelli Remorso this, Botticelli says the meaning of life is suffering. He insists that making prisoners cry and wail gives life meaning.”

My son stopped. He paused and thought. Then he said, “Mom, I don’t think the meaning of life is suffering. I don’t think that at all.”

The Power of a Book

I could have asked more questions. I could have explored his reasoning or traced the origin of that thought. Instead, I sat in that moment, fully aware that it was a book that led him there. A book caused him to reflect. A book challenged him to form his own belief in response to an idea presented to him.

Perhaps that thought would have never crossed his mind at this age. Yet there it was. A book opened his mind. A book expanded his thinking. A book led him to claim a belief of his own.

That is powerful.

What I Hope He Carries

And I hope that as he continues to read, to live, and to experience, he gains even deeper introspection. I hope he learns to form strong convictions while remaining open to ideas that challenge them. I hope he develops the reasoning to understand the complexities of being human. And I hope he never loses that belief that the purpose of life is not suffering, even though suffering may come. The purpose of life is far richer. It is living, learning, loving, giving, growing, and experiencing.

The Dream

The joy I felt sitting beside my son in that moment is something I hope others come to know. I hope that one day, reading catches fire again. I hope it spreads, becoming something beautifully infectious and impossible to cure.

At least, that is the dream.
A Life Measured by the Wrong Things

June 15th, 2026

Not only do I write film reviews and share industry news that is poignant, relevant, and capable of provoking thought and conversation, I also write book reviews. My reviews speak from where a work meets me. I ask what it leaves behind. What lingers after the final page, when I am left staring at the back cover, the jacket, or the afterword. What settles into the connective tissue of my mind and quietly alters how I see the world and how I respond to others.

The books I read span a wide range, from works of pure fiction to autobiographical accounts where people lay bare their experiences, the good, the bad, and the ugly. Most of my reviews live on platforms like Amazon or Goodreads. Occasionally, though, a work reaches deeper. It compels me to write at length, to urge others to seek it out and let it leave its mark. That is what I bring forth after reading Arthur Miller’s tragic work, Death of a Salesman.

Encountering Arthur Miller

Arthur Miller. Image Source: The Kennedy Center

Death of a Salesman is a work often discussed, especially among those steeped in theatrical arts. Arthur Miller stands as a playwright of great renown, and anyone within those circles would be hard-pressed not to have encountered his work. Yet, while his name was always familiar to me, I had never actually sat down to read this play.

It was the announcement of an upcoming revisitation of the work that finally moved me to seek it out. I wanted to understand its depth, its meaning, and what continues to make it resonate across time.

Wendell Pierce and Sharon D Clarke are Willy and Linda Loman in “Death of a Salesman” on Broadway. AP (Courtesy of The New York Post

A Man and His Illusion

The title is direct. It offers no disguise. It is exactly what it claims to be.

At its center is Willy Loman, an aging salesman with big dreams. He wants greatness for himself and, by extension, for his family. He is a father to two sons, Biff and Happy, now grown men, and a husband to Linda, whose loyalty and steadiness anchor a household constantly shifting beneath them.

Despite dedicating his life to his profession, Willy finds himself with little to show for it. He struggles to understand why his efforts have not translated into the success he envisioned. His sense of worth is tethered to an idea of achievement that continues to slip further from his grasp.

Willy is a proud man, clinging to what remains of his hope. That hope rests in his sons, his final inheritance to the world. Yet both Biff and Happy suffer from the same affliction. They are caught in the illusion of progress, chasing something they have not fully defined, while avoiding the truth of where they actually stand.

The Family Fracture

Linda sees it all. She understands the quiet unraveling taking place within her family, yet she is unable to redirect it. Her strength lies in her support, but even that cannot pierce the delusion that has taken hold.

Biff moves toward truth. He attempts to name the illusion, to confront it, believing that in doing so he might free himself from the weight that has defined his father’s life.

Happy, on the other hand, chooses continuation. He embraces the illusion, determined to follow in Willy’s footsteps, to prove something, even if it means becoming someone misaligned with who he truly is.

The Cost of a Life Misunderstood

Willy is ultimately consumed by the outcome of his life. He searches for where things went wrong, looking for causation, for someone or something to blame. In doing so, he binds himself to a past he cannot change.

He is eaten alive by guilt, by regret, and by the accumulation of choices that now stand immovable before him.

There is a depth of pain in those who live their lives trying to outdo others, trying to prove their worth to a world that is not watching. Willy’s desire to be known, to be significant, strips him of the ability to enjoy the life he actually has. It creates a loneliness he cannot fill, because it is built on expectations he could never truly meet.

What Could Have Been

Had Willy turned toward what genuinely fulfilled him, working with his hands, embracing the spaces where he felt most alive, his life might have taken on a different shape. If his sense of success had come from within rather than from an external standard, he may have found contentment.

He might have left this world satisfied with what he contributed, measuring his life not against others but against his own sense of purpose.

What the Work Leaves Behind

This work does not simply explore expectation and failure. It asks deeper questions. It asks what it means to know oneself. It asks what it costs to live for others rather than for one’s own truth.

It speaks to limitation and acceptance, to recognizing both what we cannot change and what we must. It examines generational patterns, the quiet inheritance of belief and illusion passed from parent to child. It reveals the cost of ignorance and the danger of refusing to confront reality.

Death of a Salesman is powerful because it reflects something deeply human. It gives language to an experience far more universal than we often admit. In recognizing that, it offers something rare. It offers the possibility of awareness.

Experience may be the greatest teacher, but there is a quiet grace in learning from the lives of others before we repeat their tragedies ourselves. That is the legacy and the resonant power of Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman
In the Middle of It All, We Live

June 8th, 2026

Life’s smallest moments are often the ones that shape us the most. The quiet, easily overlooked instances—the brief conversations, the pauses in our routine, the interruptions we didn’t plan for—carry a weight we don’t always recognize in real time. Stories across generations have reminded us of this, from The Ant and the Grasshopper to David and Goliath, even to modern reflections in films like GOAT. The message is simple: small things matter. Sometimes, they matter the most. That’s something I was reminded of not long ago.

An Ordinary Interruption

I was sitting in my living room, as I often do, when one of my sons came in and sat down to talk about his day. A few minutes later, my other son joined us, pulling up a chair and adding his voice to the conversation. What started casually stretched into hours—talking about life, the future, and what it all might look like. I expected it to feel warm, maybe even light. It wasn’t. It was sobering.

A Shift in Perspective

We talked about family, future plans, and survival. The way they spoke about what lies ahead carried a weight that caught me off guard. Their outlook felt more uncertain, more guarded than anything I remember feeling at their age. It wasn’t just about ambition or dreams—it was about making it, sustaining, getting through.

And I couldn’t ignore the contrast.

I grew up with a sense—real or imagined—that things would work themselves out. Even when life was uncertain, there was still room for hope, for dreaming, for joy in the middle of it. People lived day to day, but they still lived. There was a quiet confidence in the unknown: we’ll figure it out when we get there. That feeling seems harder to hold onto now.

When Preparation Becomes Postponement

The fear of not having enough—enough security, enough stability, enough certainty—has a way of overshadowing everything else. And to be fair, that fear isn’t unfounded. It makes sense to want to be prepared. It makes sense to think ahead. But somewhere in that thinking, I wonder if something has shifted.

When does preparation become postponement?

What makes a future moment more livable than the one we’re already in? What guarantees that the life we’re trying to secure will arrive in the way we imagine it?

Choosing to Live Now

I’ve been sitting with those questions.

My life hasn’t been easy or predictable. There have been seasons where all I could do was take things one day at a time. No clear roadmap, no guarantees—just the decision to keep going. And looking back, some of my most meaningful moments came from those times. Not because everything worked out perfectly, but because I didn’t wait for certainty to start living.

Moving forward anyway.

I said yes to moments that didn’t come with assurances. I held onto hope when there wasn’t much evidence to support it. And in doing that, I experienced a kind of fullness I might have missed if I had waited for the “right time.”

What Stayed With Me

That’s what stayed with me after that conversation with my sons. Not just what they said, but what it stirred in me. I don’t know if things will shift back—if hope will begin to feel lighter again, or if joy will stop competing so heavily with fear. But I do know this: life is happening now. Not in some distant, more stable version of the future. Not in a moment where everything finally makes sense.

That interruption in my living room gave me more than a conversation. It gave me perspective. It reminded me to listen, to reflect, and to stay connected—not just to my children, but to what I believe about living. It wasn’t a small moment. It just looked like one at first.

A Simple Choice

And maybe that’s the point.

I’ll choose the day-to-day. Every time.
Depth Over Width: A Love Story

May 17th, 2026

There once was a girl in desperate need of true companionship. The world felt much too large and far too lonely, until by chance she met the littlest, furriest companion who, at the very moment of meeting, seemed to know he needed her as much as she needed him. By all accounts, he saved her life,, and she saved his.

They grew together, learned together, and loved together. He was her comforter. She was his whole world.

When the Heart Opens

Then, as life often does, things changed. The very definition of life is change, growth, development, and transition. When love blooms fully and safety no longer feels like something to scramble for, the heart opens. Like a flower, its petals turn toward the sun, ready to receive more of what it was gifted to hold. And so her heart did exactly that. When more is consistently poured in, more naturally flows out; that was simply the way of her heart and the love that now filled it.

One day, that open heart led her to desire another furry companion upon which to pour that love. Whether born of natural inclination or a simple longing to give more, there were now two. There was no lengthy pause or prolonged deliberation, or if there was, it was quickly swept aside by the pull of this new and eager energy.

Two Worlds, One Space

What impact would this new decision have on the one who had always been constant? For one brief moment, brief as it relates to the long measure of time, everything seemed fine. Both appeared to adjust. The first gradually accommodated the sharing of space, attention, and love. The second was learning what all of those things meant for the very first time.

But sometimes difference carries its own impositions and limitations.

They were different by nature, age, gender, and disposition. One was a senior in the community of life, quiet, content, and satisfied to have space, food, attention, and heaps of love. He simply relished basking in the security he had grown into. The other was young, a new traveler in life, an explorer by the very nature of her station.

This made adaptation not only gradual but also heavily dependent on a particular set of circumstances.

The Shift

Then, by the natural processes of life, the one once new was now bringing her own new life into the world, and that changed everything.

Her allegiance had never been to the first, the sentry. Her predestined role bent toward nurturing. And by default, his very existence became a threat — not by action, not by aggression, but simply by being. He was male, from another litter, occupying space. To her, he threatened not only territory but also the expansion of space, attention, food, and love that her newborns demanded. He was the threat. And so it began, a perpetual clash born of pure instinct, a disquieting force that only grew because it could not be quelled.

The Quagmire

The mother, the one once saved by the first, whose heart had expanded enough to become a companion to the second, now found herself in a quagmire.

How does one excise a portion of their heart, yet still honor and secure the one who healed it and made it capable of expansion in the first place? Something so profound and priceless does not simply get set aside.

In that space, she said quietly,

“Perhaps what I had was enough. Perhaps I did not need more to pour into—I simply needed to pour more into what I already had.”

That was a profound insight. And it nestled in my heart as well.

What I Carried

I understood it completely. Pulled by want, by fully charged and unbridled desire, decisions were made without full consideration of their total consequence. Because of that, there is now a battle for peace, love, and acceptance between two that she loves equally , and it is heartbreaking. Both deserve the totality of her love, yet by the pure circumstance of life, that can no longer be fully achieved. The sentry now hides in fear. The one she welcomed now must be restrained, transformed by instinct into a huntress, driven to annihilate the one who posed no threat beyond simply existing.

What I carry with me is this: expansion feels good. The desire to openly shower whatever gifts come with that expansion is natural, even beautiful, and common to all of us. But restraint, thoughtfulness, and deliberate choice about where and how we direct that expansion are equally important — perhaps essential. More is not always the answer. Sometimes the most loving thing we can do is go deeper into what we already have, rather than wider into what we wish to acquire.
When the Small Stuff Got Big

May 10th, 2026

It is funny how life works, how little tiffs can turn into huge revelations, understandings, self-discoveries, or reinforcements. That is exactly what happened recently in my life.

A little tiff didn’t stay so little. It blew up, leading to possible shifts in future landscapes and relational ties. It made me completely assess life’s fragility and how quickly things can change. While that alone is a profound takeaway, there was an even deeper lesson embedded in the experience. One that I didn’t see coming.

The Moment That Gave Me Pause

It was a normal day under slightly unusual circumstances. A decisive choice made by someone significant in my life gave me pause. It didn’t move me immediately, but it played upon my conscience. I didn’t get it in that moment. Instead, it worked on my spirit, and I found myself reflecting deeply.

You see, when small things become big matters, it forces reflection. In this case, it bore a reflection on stewardship. Initially, I was upset about how a small thing was dealt with. But in that realization, I pondered that future proclivities are encoded in minute experiences. It is often how we deal with small things that serves as a great determinant of how we deal with larger ones.

We just don’t always recognize it until something shakes us awake.

This realization made me think of the things we ask for in life. At first glance, this shift seemed like a weird leap, as if there is no shared parallelism. But the connection became clear the more I sat with it. And once I saw it, I couldn’t unsee it.

Stewardship Begets Expansion

The situation was teaching me that preparedness in small matters is what determines our readiness for bigger ones. This truth is not new, but sometimes we need to be reminded of what we already know.

My mind reeled back to a time in life when I was in want of a space of my own. I would pray to the heavens for a bigger house. I knew what I wanted, but wasn’t aware of the price of receiving that.

Then one day, that wish wasn’t a wish anymore. It was real. I looked around at everything I had been blessed with, and it hit me. It was more than I could have imagined years earlier when I asked for something more. Now I stood in that ask. I was living in that prayer. It had materialized.

But here’s the thing. With larger spaces comes larger commitments. Greater gifts require greater responsibility. However, after normalcy settled in, there were times I would complain. I complained about the dishes or the labor of maintenance. But why? Why would I complain about something that I once wished for but now lived in?

The truth is, I had become blinded by living in an expanded state. I had grown comfortable with the bigger, having closed some distance from what used to be. But complaining is dissatisfaction. A complaint is the absence of gratitude. And gratitude is the very thing that keeps the door open.

At moments of clarity, I was reminded: to whom much is given, much is expected. Part of receiving the gift and keeping it is maintaining it. Why ask for more when you can barely tend to what you have?

Possessing the Gift

This led me to think about how I had managed to now be living what I once desired. And in that reflection, I understood something important. It wasn’t given to me until I showed myself worthy of taking care of what I already had. It wasn’t given until I invested care into what was already in my possession and acted in gratitude for what was present, not waiting for some obscure point in the future to express thankfulness.

By reason of remembrance, I understood that what I have received is a gift. I needed to recognize it and treat it as such. That means not being ill-mannered about the things required to maintain what I now possess.

So yes, I have more floors to clean. That is the cost of wanting more. But cleaning my floors should not be done begrudgingly. It should be done with the utmost gratitude. After all, there was a time when having my own floors to clean was only a dream, and a fervent one at that. And as quickly as something can be given, it can be taken away. That reality alone should keep me humble.

Reframing the Work

I have heard it said in one of the lectures I attended that it is our mindset that determines everything. I believe that to be true now more than ever.

When we reframe our perspective of things, seeing what we have to do by reason of what is entrusted to us, whether jobs, children, or material possessions, as things we get to do, it transforms our entire relationship with those things. We treat them better. We hold them with greater adoration. We cherish the work because we realize that whatever labor comes along with it is in and of itself a gift.

Because here is the truth: expansion does not negate effort. It often requires more. The pit comes along with the parcel. And if we are not prepared to embrace that, we are not prepared for the blessing at all.

Something Worth Sharing

It was funny how a small tiff made me think of these things. What started as a moment of frustration turned into a moment of clarity. The lesson was profound, and it gave me something to share.

In a nutshell, it is as important to act with gratitude, love, respect, and generosity with small things as it is with large things. How can you want more when you do not care for what you have? It is antithetical. The way we steward the little is the very thing that opens the door to the much. And that is a truth worth holding onto.