by Gary Taylor | Oct 13, 2017 | Blog, Busy, Journaling, Joy, Pause
I was at a water park with my family when our daughter – about 5-years old at the time – snuck off without us noticing. Upon realizing that we were separated, I scanned a huge crowd of hundreds in my immediate area, feeling a wave of panic and of deep concern. How...
by Gary Taylor | Mar 12, 2017 | Blog, habits, Journaling, Lent, Pause, Solitude, transformation
A vine-covered trellis was my landing spot for a day of retreat. I sat in the cool morning shade of its leafy canopy. The obvious-to-me characteristic was that the vines were closely wrapped around the structure. Beginning at the base, circling the posts, then...
by Gary Taylor | Jan 27, 2017 | Blog, Busy, Community, Pause, Vulnerable
After my dad passed away in 2012, I inherited several hundred books from his library. Most of them are commentaries on the 66 books of the Bible. To prepare for teaching from Ephesians this weekend, I pulled a number of those books off the shelf. His name – in his own...
by Gary Taylor | Dec 18, 2016 | Blog, Busy, Cross, grace, Overwhelmed, Pause
There wasn’t a game I played more often as a kid than a good, old-fashioned game of tag. I never wanted to be “It.” I just wanted to run from whoever was. It was exhilarating and exhausting to have someone on your heels in hot pursuit, so long as you didn’t get...
by Gary Taylor | Nov 13, 2016 | Blog, Pause, Solitude, transformation
I’m taking my first writing course. It’s online, and covers many practical topics from finding my writing voice to maximizing the effectiveness of a blog to authoring books. One assignment involves rewriting my “About Page” for garysjournal.com. As it currently reads,...
by Gary Taylor | Oct 16, 2016 | Blog, Overwhelmed, Pause, Solitude, Vulnerable
I crashed. I couldn’t keep up. I was giving it all I had, but it wasn’t enough. Just six months after our move to Silicon Valley, I had allowed my schedule to get out of hand. I was struggling to maintain commitments and relationships and life in general. I hadn’t...
At the age of 32 I married my best friend, Beth. Thirteen years later we are blessed with two very energetic kids - Jack (12) and Calleigh (9). My wife is a ridiculously good cook who loves hosting dinners in our home, and then I go to the gym to work off the calories. I am an avid reader who appreciates contemplative, Spiritual conversations shared over a cup of coffee. Hobbies and interests include reading and writing, journaling, working out, and St. Louis Cardinal’s baseball. More 