This weekend I visited my son, whose work has brought him to the far western part of Virginia for a few months. I’d never been to that part of the country and was eager to see it. He’s sent me plenty of pictures showing me the beauty here. We drove the switchback road up Whitetop…

We pulled up chairs and formed a circle. Small talk gave way quickly — as if the body told the mind to step aside. What followed was the real talk. The catch-up. The stories. And the laughter that only comes from people who watched you be twenty, foolish, and loved you anyway, maybe even more…

I’ve been running again. Not real running — six, sometimes eight laps around the turf complex at Tabor. I jog the long sides, walk the short ones. Yesterday it was warm rain, coming down in sheets, stopping, coming down again. I was soaked by the end of the first lap and didn’t care. Eleven years…

Throughout the day, I sensed the sunset would be stunning, with clouds drifting in from the west and that special golden glow before dusk. My camera was charged, I remembered to put the SD card in, and I kept telling myself these shots would turn out incredible. I uploaded them that night. Flat. Basic. Generic.…

Last weekend I attended my niece Izzy and her husband Ollie’s wedding, at a ranch deep in Wyoming’s Gros Ventre Wilderness. I brought my good camera, knowing it would be worth it. When I got home — exhausted, still reeling a bit from the altitude — I started going through the pictures and videos, putting…

Have you ever had a moment where you picked something up off the ground and felt the whole world in your hand? I had one a few days ago. I was at my town beach. I’ve been there hundreds, maybe thousands of times — to swim, to sit, to think, to work. I know this…

I sometimes get asked how I came to meditation, and what it’s all about. Meditation means different things to different people, and most of what people think they know about it is wrong. It’s not just friends, either. Whether my client is a 62-year-old business owner, a 15-year-old student-athlete, or a college team, the problem…

The Japanese fans stayed after the final whistle. Win or lose, they picked up trash from their section, bagged it, and left the stadium cleaner than they found it. The Jordanian team left something, too — a note for the next team in their locker room and sweets on the table. Kindness, addressed to strangers…

The following is an excerpt from my book, The Why of Sports. Presence is the opposite of distraction. It is a fully embodied state of being where you are unified with your current moment-to-moment experience. Almost every student or athlete will say they’ve had a teacher or coach who tells them to focus. In my…

Early in my coaching career, before a game against a team that was clearly better than us, I gave the speech. The amped-up one. We believe in ourselves. We want it more. Tomorrow is “our day dammit!” We were down five before the first quarter ended. I remember standing there watching it unravel and feeling…