I hurt my left wrist about three years ago, playing rugby. I went up for a loose ball and got tackled in mid-air, falling to the ground on my outstretched hand. I heard a slight snapping sound but thought nothing of it.

I teach tennis for a living and I’m left handed. The day after the fall, holding the racket was like closing my hand over an electric fence. Instead of sending my clients home, I improvised. I put the racket in my right and bumbled through the morning like a child in an airport looking for his mother.

The…

For the past two years, I’ve been teaching my daughters how to hit a tennis ball. I teach tennis for a living and believe it’s one of the most beneficial sports one can learn from an early age. My girls are 4 and 6.

It didn’t take long for them to get bored of tennis-time with dad, even after the ice-creams and toy prizes I’d dangle in front of baskets full of yellow-green fur. So I improvised, unwilling to give up my dream of watching them blitz forehand winners down the line.

On the way home after a frustrating session…

In June 2017, my wife and I bought our first house on the Big Island of Hawaii. Prices here aren’t like they are in the midwest. We scrounged for every dollar bill, garnering just enough for a skimpy 5% down payment. Part of our liquidation extended to retirement accounts, savings, and against my better judgment, all the Bitcoin I owned.

After deciding to sell it, I received an email from Coinbase (the crypto company who held my Bitcoin) notifying me that they were withdrawing their services from Hawaii.

“Please sell all assets to avoid loss.”

There were instructions on how…

I’ve enjoyed writing as a casual pastime for most of my life. Two years ago, I decided to hone in on the craft. I began a rigorous reading routine and committed to typing two-hundred-and fifty words a day. I wrote an article that intrigued the eyes of an emerging surf brand. A couple of emails later, I became their part-time content writer. It was hardly the start of a way to pay for the mortgage, but I could finally answer affirmatively,

“I’m making money doing what I love.”

Wanting to Write

In her famed writing manual, Bird by Bird, Best-selling author Anne Lamott…

When we bought our house on the Big Island of Hawaii, almost four years ago, our only regret was that it was the most expensive in the neighborhood. Buying at the peak of anything doesn’t bode well for future hopes of making a profit. Not that we had any intentions of leaving the island in a hurry.

Coronavirus hit last March, and with it came a collective shudder for homeowners, businessmen, and anybody living paycheck to paycheck. …

2020 gave us anything but dull screens to pass the time. Each new day held powerful reminders about the fragility of life and repeated warnings to heed the present. And while sterility is what none of us want from our limited time under the sun, our expectancies turn to disappointments if our moments become interrupted by glimpses of death or contradictions to placidity. Yet we are always faced with the obvious: our world is wild, the natural and man-made. Our efforts to control or tame the globe are scratchings at a sore until blood. …

I began 2020 with a simple mission: write a novel. I settled on a manageable word count per day (250) and started a story that had long been brewing under the surface. I’m a short-term goals oriented type of person. It’s difficult for me to stay with projects, ideas, or pursuits that span over months. I like to get things done immediately, then move onto the next task. Writing a novel wasn’t only out of my comfort zone; it was out of my universe.

“Writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far…

I began my tennis career as a five-year-old banging old balls against my garage door. My court was an uneven driveway steep as the learning curve the sport requires. One whiff and the ball would tumble into the street, nine out of ten times, swallowed by the sewage system, disappearing into piles of human waste.

I stopped and started the game like many young kids unsure of athletic destiny. But by twelve, I’d resolved to play at Wimbledon, putting course to whatever effort that direction required of me. The following six years were the most disciplined of my life. …