Surgeon. Writer. Father.

Walking the neighborhood. Dictating into a phone. That is where most of the writing starts.

Engineering came first. Construction job sites in college, then a vinyl siding plant in Michigan. The instincts running underneath everything I have built since are the same ones from those floors. Find the problem. Fix the problem. Stop when something feels off and investigate after.

Then medicine. Orthopedic surgery training and practice for over 10 years. Left at 5 AM. Home after the kids were asleep. Brita preheated the car in the Michigan cold and drove leftovers to the hospital when I could not get out for dinner. The schedule was brutal. I loved the work.

A medical diagnosis closed the OR sooner than I planned. I am on a new pathway as an orthopedic surgeon. Still helping people. But in different ways outside the operating room.

More time to write. More time to build. Good Thing Monday goes out every week. The memoir is in progress. Lampway is the long build. A two-year walk through the Bible for the whole family at the same table.

Where I am going is toward anyone in the middle of their own hard turn. The thing you built your life around closing before you were ready. A new pathway you did not pick but have to walk. You can lose what you planned and gain more after the loss. That is what the writing is for. That is what the building is for.