Well, you probably figured out my name by now. If you’d like to contact me, just respond to one of my posts in another section. I will be emailed with your contact information. Kudos and gratitude to my buddy, Brian, who created this site using photographs we took throughout my home.

When I try to explain to new acquaintances or old friends that I am living my life as a warrior, they nod slowly and start glancing towards nearby exits, as if I were going to either try to A) convert them to a cult, or B) sell them Amway. I created this site to provide a glimpse into my life and what it meansto be a warrior to me.

“A warrior must cultivate the feeling that he has everything needed for the extravagant journey that is his life. What counts for a warrior is being alive. Life in itself is sufficient, self-explanatory and complete. Therefore, one may say without being presumptuous that the experience of experiences is being alive.”
- Carlos Castenada

Being a warrior, for me, is about the art of being alive. Fully alive. Risk-taking, looking-at-my-shit-and-walking- through-it kind of alive. Also, laughing my fool head off. Crying hard, sometimes. Sometimes being a warrior means saying, “I am afraid” when I least want to utter those dreaded words.

Here are the guiding principles that I strive to live by. Yes, I fail. (Uh…sometimes quite spectacularly.) This life is a work-in-progress, so I get up, dust off my ass, and try again.

• I speak my truth, sharing freely my perspective and principles.
• I listen and learn when others tell me what they see in me.
• I maintain integrity in my relationships by meeting my commitments.
• I treat others with dignity, respect their boundaries, and honor their confidences.
• I am honest with myself and others.
• I deal with disagreements directly.
• I accept full responsibility for my actions, intended or unintended.
• I hold another accountable who I judge to be out of integrity with clarity and compassion.
• I acknowledge and encourage the inherent value of others.

I could spend my whole life working that list, trying to get it right. In fact, that is my intention.

“A warrior must learn to make every act count, since he is going to be here in this world for only a short while, in fact, too short for witnessing all the marvels of it.”
- Carlos Castenada

I was introduced to the concept of living life as a warrior from a few different sources, the most long-lasting and influential being The Mankind Project. I had no idea there was a whole world of men focusing on living with integrity and trying to bring themselves to the fullest, most-loving, most ass-kicking lives ever lived. Huh.

The Dedication

When I was a boy, we’d huddle around Grandpappy’s wood burning stove, roasting bunny innards on pine sticks, bickering over who deserved those tiny, crispy lungs. He’d pop out his glass eye and whipt it at us, yelling, “If you youngins ain’t behavin’, I won’t fire up the inter-net.”

Worked like a charm.

We’d hunker down, silently munching, eager to see Grandpappy’s old hand-cranked website. We’d squeeze in near his elbows as he navigated the clumsy, turn-of-the-century browser, clicking buttons like “Backward Motion,” “Refresh Thine Content,” And “Homestead.”

He’d grouse about the slowness of his oxen-pulled connection as we visited family favorites like www.onionlickers.com, and www.dirtpoor.org. Once he caught me visiting the risque www.showmeyourankles.com. Boy, what a whipping I received. Good times, good times.

This site is dedicated to my grandfathers and all those who came before me, living within me now.

***