At practice tonight Coach reminded us of the following saying:

Yard by yard, it’s hard

Inch by inch, it’s a cinch

The idea is that for any lofty goal you have set for yourself–and you should be setting lofty goals for yourself–it can get overwhelming thinking about all the things you have to do …

We are hardwired to view sameness as safety, change as danger.

I realized this when considering whether or not I should sign up for a jiu-jitsu seminar with martial arts legend Royce Gracie.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with him, Royce is a professional mixed martial artist from Brazil who …

On Saturday January 12, 2013, I was awarded an MFA in Creative Writing from the Stonecoast MFA Program at the University of Southern Maine. (Pictured above, L-to-R: Allister Timms, Derek Hoffman, Jim Kelly, Amy Tibbetts, Kendall Giles)

There was much rejoicing.

Note: as backgrounders on writing and …