Sons of the Shepherd

Grace for the Grieving Tools to Help the Grieving Part Four       Grief has a way of making the familiar feel foreign.  You wake up one day in the house, same job, same clothes, same food, same culture, but all of a sudden everything feel different.  Nothing feels like it did the day before.  I remember walking into my house on the night of November 25th, 2024.  That was the day that my sweet Tiffanie died.  Tears form in my eyes thinking about that day.  The heaviness of it rests on my chest as I write this.  I sat on the couch that we bought together.  On the floor was her jug of water.  The home was decorated for Christmas....she decorated.  I knew every corner of that house....and yet it wasn't home any longer.  I had lived in the same area for 40 years, and yet I felt like I was walking in a place I had never been.  Familiar monuments were strange.  Normal speech felt like a different dialect.  Thi...

  "What Is Grief, If Not Love Persevering?"       I am an unapologetic nerd.  I have embraced who I am.  Ironically when I was young the kids that loved comic books and superheroes were considered 'geeks' but today it's cool to love superheroes.  I think I was a child born outside of time or that I was really cool back then but no one else knew it....or maybe I'm super cool now and no one is telling me.  I am a devout follower of Marvel and DC movies.  I have watched every movie and have meticulously followed each television series.  I literally mark my calendar with anticipation as a new series prepares to launch.  The latest Marvel series is "VisionQuest."  The show continues the storyline of the AI machine Vision.  Vision is a bit of an enigma in the current Marvel Universe.  There have been multiple different versions of him, each slightly different and unique from the one prior.  Vision is a creation of Tony...

The Different Faces of Grief Tools to Help the Grieving Part Three       One of my hobbies is cooking, and when I mean cooking I mean all types of cooking.  I enjoy grilling, cooking, frying, pasta making, canning, freezing, and baking.  You name it, and I'll probably LOVE it.  But learning to cook requires you to be patient and to have a little bit of a learning curve.  Not everything that you bake will turn our perfectly the first time.  It might be like an experiment of trial and error until you get it right.  Sometimes that dish tastes good, but it looks awful.  I can vividly remember when my kids were little.  They wanted me to make cakes from scratch.  Making a cake from scratch is a breeze....but decorating one....that's an entirely different story.  My oldest requested a cake that was so ornate that I had to buy special tools to pipe the icing.  I watched Youtube videos and I even opened a Pinterest account t...

 Grief Doesn’t End After the Funeral Tools to Help the Grieving Part Two       When it comes to tools there are two kinds of guys.  The guys that have all their tools organized or the guys that are constantly asking, where did I last see that wrench.  I used to be the later guy.  I would do a job and leave the drill, hammer, etc near where I finished the job.  But a problem would spring up each time a new job would arise, where did my drill go?  I have to admit something to you.  There was a time when my drill was so lost that I had to go to Lowes to buy another one.  I am now the proud owner of two Milwaukee drills.  I'm now on part with Hank Hill regarding my tool organizational skills.  They each have their place and they are labeled.  I also put my tools away where they belong at the end of each job.  I've learned my lesson.  There is something satisfying in putting a tool away.  It's like a runner ...

  When There Are No Words Tools to Help the Grieving Part One       Tools.  Each man almost seems to have a love affair with them.  We even love tools that we aren't quite sure what they are or what they do, but they seem to be cool.  Men seem to have a little bit of "Tim the Toolman Taylor" in their blood.  We can get lost in Lowes or Home Depot.  We love watching shows on how to fix something or remodel a house.  Tools have been in the lineage of the Robinson family for quite some time.  My great grandfather made tools in his shop, especially knives and cutting tools.  My grandfather collected tools.  He literally had sheds, yes, sheds plural, filled with tools.  My dad is a master craftsman.  Me, well, my carpentry tools might have fallen pretty far from the tree, but there is something 'manly' in grabbing a drill and pushing the 'trigger.'  I even wear a toolbelt when I'm helping my dad do big jobs, but ...