faulker009

Dear God, I know you are busy, but I hope you get a chance to read this note. As I’m sure you know, these have not been the best of times for me. I’m sure you have a plan, but at the moment, I don’t see it. To be quite honest, right now I feel like everything is against me. EVERYTHING. I’ve searched high and low for that ray of sunlight, but all I can see is clouds. Big black clouds. I really need something positive to happen. And soon. The situation with my mom is as bad as ever. The good news is I was absolutely correct when I thought we were on the verge of another bipolar episode. The bad news is it is here. She’s not sleeping, probably not eating. She is back to believing that the world is against her. Wait, I believe that last part. But I am sleeping fine. I went to lunch with her last Tuesday and I barely got a word in. She was changing topics faster than a game show. She used all the cliches that she always does when her chemicals are imbalanced. She repeated all the 40-ye...

What an almost perfect weekend it was. I’ll get to the almost in a bit, but like the good book, let’s start at the beginning. I got a call a few days ago from a friend who said that she was going to be in the neighborhood this weekend. Well, not exactly the neighborhood, but my state. Considering she lives in a different time zone, a two-hour drive was the least I could do. So I loaded up the car and took the two older kids on a road-trip. My wife stayed home with our six year-old and the dog. The ride there gave me and my 12-year old daughter and 11-year old son a great opportunity to catch-up as they entered their spring break. I’ve got satellite radio in my car so we had a lot of musical options. For the most part they wanted the Top 40 station and I gave in to be a good dad. Did you know that Lady Gaga and Lady Antebellum are not related? Who knew? At one point, I was looking to get a little break and give the kids a little culture, so I flipped on preset #7. The Broa...

My dad was an incredibly successful person, holding several high profile jobs during his career. Each time he would change his job, there was usually a formal announcement that followed. During the back half of his career, when the press release came out, one thing was always constant. He was 51 years old. When he really was 51, I was only 13, so all I really cared about was what city we were moving to and not how old he was. But after four or five job changes and his age remaining the same, I started catching on. Nothing gets by me, right? When I was finally old enough to understand what he was doing, my stepmother and I were sworn to secrecy about his true age. In fact, it got so bad that when he passed away nearly eight years ago at the age of 75 and somebody asked how old he was, I actually asked Barbara if it would be alright to tell the truth. My dad and I had a couple of conversations about why he hid his real age. I don’t remember the exact answer, but it had...

For the last 15 months, my therapist has learned a lot about me. This week, I learned something about her. She likes buying books from amazon.com. Big books, little books, new books, old books. Just books. This week, she showed me a used book that she purchased called, “I Believe in You”. Based on the title, I’m guessing its pretty inspirational, but we never made it to page one. On the inside of the front cover was a handwritten note from a man to his daughter, dated Christmas 2000. Kelly, 24 things to always remember and 1 thing to never forget. your presence is a present to the world you're unique and one of a kind your life can be what you want it to be take the days just one at a time count your blessings, not your troubles you’ll make it through whatever comes along within you are so many answers understand, have courage, be strong don’t put limits on yourself so many dreams are waiting to be realized decisions are too important to leave...

When my father passed away nearly eight years ago, I lost a lot. I lost a friend, a father, a fan, but most of all I lost a voice of reason. Many of our conversations included nothing but sports and “how are you”, but somehow I ALWAYS walked away learning something. I learned that reading an online newspaper wasn’t as informative as getting the ink on your hands. I learned that non-fat frozen yogurt was good for you, but ice cream wasn’t. But most of all, I learned about life. One of the many lessons that I still use to this day is when there is a big decision to be made, take a piece of paper and write the good things in one column and the bad things in the other. Majority wins. Well, it’s not always that simple, but it sure does make sense. In the last eight years, I’ve had several opportunities to apply his words, even without being able to hear his voice. A month after he died, I was offered a job to work for his old company. It would’ve meant relocating, my wife leaving...