Where I Come From 2024

  My goals at this season of my life: Stay Curious. Be Amazed. Share Remarkable Stories   “God is working in 10,000 ways around you, and you may be aware of two or three of them.” -John Piper As a Pineywoods Man, I’m committed to a lifetime of curiosity.  To be a lifetime learner.  To walk up to strangers, introduce …

Thoughts on Carrying a Lazy Man’s Load I’m guilty of it. Been guilty of it most of my life. That was proven again today when I was unloading my work truck and tried to bring everything in the house in one load. Just as I got in the kitchen, my iPad slid out from my armload of books, papers, and …

    A word from Curt I’m blogging a new non-fiction project entitled, The Pineywoods Manifesto: Field Notes on the Full Life. Although I’m writing it primarily for my four grandsons, I’m also thinking about the values and qualities we cherish in the part of western Louisiana we call “The Pineywoods.” Today’s lesson chapter involved a grounded worldview on something …

Pa’s Enduring Lesson on Anger They’ve both been gone for nearly half a century. I was seven and ten, respectively when my paternal great-grandparents died. We called them Pa and Doten, and they were center of our family’s solar system. They each left an enduring lesson that still reverberates in my heart. As I pass each of these two brief …

Rule 1: Think first, then shoot.  Rule 2: If in doubt, don’t shoot.   lynx liNGks/ noun a wild cat with yellowish-brown fur (sometimes spotted), a short tail, and tufted ears, found chiefly in the northern latitudes of North America and Eurasia.   There are some things that cannot be taken back. That’s a good reason to choose carefully what you …

A word from Curt   Today’s story will be part of a speech I’ve giving Tuesday night to the 150 Honor Graduates in my home parish of Beauregard. My short talk will consist of three parts: Remember where you came/come from. Remember you didn’t get here by yourself. Remember that this is just the beginning of your journey. Today, I’m …

The best part of writing about Pineywoods Louisiana is how my books open the door for others to tell me their stories. Most of my historical fiction comes from actual stories told by my friends, both old and new. This is especially true with A Spent Bullet, my 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers book. My cousin, Harold Iles, who was a Sugartown …

  Storms don’t create character; they reveal it. We saw that in the good folks of Texas and Louisiana as neighbors and strangers helped each other.         The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline, for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and …

combine with Joseph’s brothers and their 20 year lie Some are saying it cost him $10 million dollars in endorsements. The lower estimate is that Ryan Lochte’s string of lies cost him at least $5 million in future earnings and endorsements. $5 million or $10 million lost.  That’s a pile of regret. And it all goes back to a drunken …

Dry Creek’s finest and biggest pine knot pile in the yard of my friends, Mark and Kari Miller. The following is a short sad story on how I lost my own pile. Earthly treasures, pine knot piles, and 401 (K) accountsx All of a sudden, the February wind picked up and turned out of the south. Instantly what had been …