Anchorage, Alaska, July 21, 2012

It is a little after 7 a.m. here.

Waverly and I flew in last night from Houston Intercontinental.  There's just a three-hour time difference, much different, of course, from the time change that we exprienced last summer in Hawaii.

I'm already up (Waverly has an 8 a.m. wake-up timeline) as I've signed up for the Alaska Men's Run, a 5-miler that starts at 10 a.m. from the Anchorage Football Stadium and utilizes a part of the initial section of trail for the Iditarod race held early each spring.

I wish I would have started and maintained this type of blog a long, long time ago.  Just documenting life and what's transpired over time.  I'm 45, but I've experienced a lot of incredible things in my life.  The ability to travel and open up the world to my now 17-year-old daughter is something that I've always been very grateful for and thankful of.

To be able to earn enough and make the time to show her our great country, all of its peoples and expand her mind as to what is possible in her life to come is wonderful to be able to experience.

Our vacations - or even mini-trips like a month ago in California - are typically pretty action-packed, but we'll see how this trip goes.  We have places where we need to get to, but we'll make it up in between.  Kind of like we've always done it.

Last Sunday at North Park Baptist Church, where our new pastor, Randy Harp, was preaching, his message redirected me back to the basics of our faith. 

It all starts with sin - and we're all guilty, me included.  And it should be a goal to minimize it and walk as close to God as we possibly can.

At the start of the year, I bought Tony Dungy's book, "The One Year Uncommon Life Daily Challenge".  I started reading it on a daily basis, but like many other things in my life I let it slide.

I just read today's entry about "Discernment Instead of Judgment".  The verse included - Romans 2:1 - was as follows:

"You may think you can condem such people, but you are just as bad, and you have no excuse!  When you say they are wicked and should be punished, you are condemning yourself, for you who judge others do these very same things."

I'm not sure what translation this is, but I've been guilty of this and I've also been wrongly accused of doing this (i.e. "extremely judgmental").  It really isn't a place that I want to be - in either case.

I want to give as much as I can to others, and never have to have this thought cross my mind.  It is why I tend to try and stay as busy as I can to avoid falling into this trap.

I'm also continually thankful for the people that I get a chance to work with to do some neat things in the communities that I'm fortunate enough to be a part of.  More about those individuals in the days and entries to come.