The Gift of Courage: Everyday Heroes and the People Who Share Their Lives
After half a century on earth, I realize that I am here simply to enjoy moments in an ongoing attempt at a life of benevolent purpose. Learning from and writing about the great people in this book helped me to recognize this. I hope I do them and this beautiful journey justice, and in telling their story make the world a better place so our children can know the blessings that I feel right now.One of those blessings is the place where I live. Central Oregon is wide open country, nestled into a corner of the largest piece of undeveloped land in the contiguous U.S. It stretches through parts of Oregon, Idaho, California and Nevada. If you look at the “earth at night” poster, the darkest part of the lower 48 is this area. Redmond, a town of 25,000, sits on the western edge of this expanse, known as the Great Basin. We live just outside of Redmond amidst ranch lands with endless views of the nearby 10,000-feet tall Three Sisters Mountains. Starry skies filled with universal glory, forever Cascade panoramas, and traffic-free morning walks make our hometown heaven on earth.My wife, Danielle, and I have the great joy of raising our children — Dawson, Delaney, and Dari — in this magnificent place. Here I make a living by writing and running a couple of businesses. Through the eighties, nineties, and early 2000's I was an international river guide, then a manager of a adventure travel company in Norway, and finally an owner of a large outfitting business that ran wilderness adventure trips around the world, including Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Iceland, Mexico, Idaho, Bolivia, and Norway. In the mid 2000’s, I traded my Tevas for ties, thinking that to be a good father I needed to be closer to home and to earn more money. It was during this period that I discovered that a life with purpose — serving others and sharing stories of individual and community greatness — was infinitely more rewarding than just chasing the dollar.Today, I passionately and proudly coach my kids’ soccer teams, help them with projects like driving a go-cart in the Fourth of July parade or learning to dance the hula, tuck them in at night after doing "silly hat tricks" or the "jelly belly" dance, and then hold my wife as I blissfully have for twenty years. In a nutshell, I am blessed and grateful.Thank you for taking time, by reading these pages, to learn of the beauty of purpose, joy of caring, and the gift of courage.