Life After Door Kicking shield

Life after door kicking.

Tag: reflection

  • Joe Blow to Double 00 : the Power of a smile in your toolkit

    For most of my life, I was a sourpuss. Angry, unapproachable, someone people didn’t dare waste a smile on. I was just Joe Blow—grumpy, defensive, easy to avoid. Somewhere along the way, though, I started adding tools to my kit, and the most surprising one was a smile. Learning to wield it deliberately—strategically—felt almost like…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking

  • Life’s a garden gotta dig it, and weed it, and fertilize…

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    Life has a way of filling idle moments with noise—regrets, imagined slights, and endless loops of “what if.” I’ve learned that letting the mind wander unchecked is like leaving soil untended: weeds take over, choking the space meant for growth. Energy, if not directed, becomes mischief in the mind. That’s why I’ve chosen to put…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking

  • Rage by a Thousand Cuts — A First-Person Stoic Reflection

    This morning wasn’t destroyed by one big thing.It was wrecked by a thousand tiny irritants — a soggy dish towel left in the sink, my son taking the last two bananas probably to smoke out of, chores undone even after I gave extra money, him dragging his feet and making everyone late, my wife getting…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking

  • A Different Assignment – A Different Fate

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    Today marks a day I can never forget. Twenty three years ago, the squad I was in before we deployed, hit an AT mine. I was moved to weapons squad as soon as I got in country. I’ve carried the weight of that randomness, the loss of my team, and the disillusionment that followed. I…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking

  • No, You Don’t Have to Force December

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    I get the desire for cheer in December. I really do. The winter solstice gives us the shortest day of the year. The world tilts and shrinks the light. Things go gray. Cold sets in. It’s only natural we’d want to fight that back—with lights, with laughter, with plans, with cheer.We’re not wrong to want…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking

  • Measured in Exhales

    Feeling different than all my peers in this,Struggles of a left-handed lyricist,Smudges on my fist from dragging it,Even worse when I was gripping it. Audacity to worship myself — intrinsic,But a little introspection shows that’s illogic,Blessings of a curse — I’m gifted,Writing backwards in my notebooksso this spiral isn’t on my wrist. I was never…

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    lifeafterdoorkicking