I have always loved old family photographs. Sometimes they capture more than the people standing in them. They capture a story. The man in this photograph is my great-great-grandfather, William Perry Martin. He was already an old man when this picture was taken, well into his seventies. Behind him is an enormous tree stump, and […]
Sometimes It Is Time to Dig Out the Stump Read More »
Last week, Dawn and I celebrated our 41st wedding anniversary. Forty-one years. It hardly seems possible. Like most couples, we’ve experienced seasons of abundance and seasons of scarcity, moments of certainty and moments when we wondered how everything would work out. We’ve made wise decisions and foolish ones. We’ve had victories worth celebrating and mistakes
We Didn’t Drive Away in a Corvette Read More »
My wife, Dawn Wesley, is abnormal. Well, maybe that’s not the right word. Special? Gifted? That might be closer. Dawn has this strange ability to know exactly how many stairs there are in every place we’ve ever lived. Not approximately, not “about ten” or “around fifteen,” but exactly. She knows how many steps lead up
When I was growing up, a vacation usually meant one thing: family. We did not take many trips in the modern sense. We were not loading up the car to go to resorts or booking rooms months in advance. If we were going somewhere, it was usually to see grandparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins. Family
We have deer everywhere. Every morning and evening, Dawn and I can sit on the front porch with our Coke Zero and watch them moving through the woods. We catch them on our cameras at all hours, grazing, wandering, sometimes standing still as if posing for us. They’re beautiful creatures, and I enjoy seeing them.
Deer and Great Grandma’s Chickens Read More »
A few years ago, my mother went on a mission trip to Peru through her church. She came home talking about the beauty of the country, the kindness of the people, and how deeply she enjoyed the experience. Like many mission trips, each person had to pay their own way, and the stated purpose was
The Mission Trip and the Mirror Read More »
My dad taught me something simple that has stayed with me my entire life. He used to say, “Everyone puts their pants on the same way, one leg at a time.” To some people, that may sound like just an old country saying, but to my father, it was a philosophy of life. My dad
The Same Pants (Part 1) Read More »
As some of you know, I often write about lessons I learned from my parents, grandparents, mentors, clients, students, and friends. (See the latest – https://wesleyphd.com/sometimes-gifts-come-back-to-us/) I have been incredibly blessed with wise people in my life, and I am deeply grateful for them. But lately I have been thinking about something else. That equation
The Other Side of Wisdom Read More »
When I was around eight years old, I saw something at our local J.J. Newberry’s store that I just had to buy for my grandpa. It was a little statue of an old man flexing his muscles with a cape and a giant S on his chest. The inscription read: Grandpa… You’re Super The first
Sometimes gifts come back to us Read More »
A year ago, I found myself facing one of the great realities of my age. At some point, your Amazon purchase history quietly shifts from gadgets and books to orthopedic inserts, fiber supplements, and the occasional emergency tube of hemorrhoid cream. Pride falls quickly when your internal plumbing declares mutiny. Naturally, I wanted to handle
Preparation H and the Mystery of the Playing Cards Read More »