Author: Kevin Spear

I am a content creator and storyteller based in Florida, where I work for OneHope. I love digital and content marketing, writing, and the occasional doodle.

Categories
Attitude growth

Why I Am Grateful to Be Alive

1965 Elkhart Double Tornado-Palm Sunday.

Every April 11 reminds me why I am grateful to be alive. It was sixty years ago, on April 11, 1965, when disaster struck. The day was a balmy Palm Sunday in Indiana. My mother was five months pregnant with me. Even though it was stormy, it was evening, and they were getting ready to go to church.

My grandparents lived about five miles southwest of my parents. My Uncle Preston was with them. As they were chatting, they suddenly felt things go deathly quiet. Uncle Preston rushed out to the mailbox. To the northwest, he saw the tornado. He ran back in and told everyone to get in the coal bin. He rushed to the phone to call my dad.

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Categories
discipline growth motivation

Rooted and Established

photo of dried leaves near tree
Photo by mali maeder on Pexels.com

Take a moment to ponder: where do you have your roots? Where are you established? Is it a place, your family? Or is it your career, maybe your possessions? Reflecting on these questions can lead to a deeper understanding of your values and beliefs.

We live in a time of great anxiety. Stock market portfolios look shaky. We fight over values and may even compromise our values because the ends justify the means.

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Categories
Christmas holiday writing

Writing a Christmas Letter

dad watching her daughter make a christmas letter
Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.com

A recent podcast made me consider the advantages of writing a Christmas letter instead of sending friends and family images from the year.

“You just can’t do [it] with a collection of selfies or any other kind of scenic images.

It requires a story. And the act of having to commit yourself to tell a story is an invitation to tell the full dimensions of that, or the fuller dimension.”

From Good Faith: Advent with Friends: Rethinking Heavenly Peace (with Andy Crouch), Dec 7, 2024

Curtis Chang explained photos, while they are good, can’t tell a complete story. We either choose the best images, because we desire to put out best foot forward, or we attempt to show an image that can exploit a situation.

Regarding Santa, a mood board with all a child’s requests is not quite the same as a handwritten letter. If you have a lot of hopes and fears to convey, a handwritten letter may be the way to go. It may be the only way for clearer Christmas requests.

Cartoon of a boy and a letter carrier at the post office. The boy says, "It's a letter to Santa. My hopes and fears of all the years are mailed with thee tonight."

It may be too late for me this year, but I may reconsider writing a Christmas letter next year. Check back with me then and see if I follow through.

Categories
motivation

Nobody Drifts to Success

jellyfish swimming in the sea
Photo by Anastasia Lebedeva on Pexels.com

It doesn’t matter what you want to achieve. Nobody gets there by happenstance. Nobody drifts to success. Sure, we hear stories that may convince us this is the case. Some are born with silver spoons in their mouths, but nobody drifts into doing something meaningful and successful.

Show up and do the hard work. Every Monday, be the one who faithfully puts in the hours and the effort because drifting isn’t a strategy. It’s a recipe for failure. I would rather make the effort and fail, than fail by default because I have never tried.

Let’s face it: it’s too easy to drift. The good news is that you can wake up and correct your course once you realize you are drifting.

Categories
communication writing

Is it too cold?

women s black zip up hooded jacket
Photo by Kristin Vogt on Pexels.com

We’ve been in Indiana and Ohio for Thanksgiving the last few days. Coming from Florida, it was a shock to the system when the wind chill recently dropped below 9° Fahrenheit. But is it too cold?

If you go by the headlines, the answer is yes. Of course, they have to add some drama to their spiel.

Snow and Arctic cold will blast the Midwest and Northeast

Is it too cold? man in rainy weather spots a melting snowman.

The guy in my illustration may think the icy rain makes it too cold. But if the snowman could speak, he may disagree. A nine-degree windchill may seem too frigid to a midwesterner, but it may sound like a heat wave in Barrow, Alaska.

Generalities can cloud your communications. Be specific when you describe a situation. Otherwise, your intended receiver may think you are too vague.

Now, excuse me while I find a nice, roaring fire.