I now live in a world without Dale Grubb.\u00a0 I drove down the street today and saw the back of a man walking down the sidewalk, thinking it was Dale, and then my mind told me otherwise.\u00a0 Dale passed on three years ago.\u00a0 I miss him.<\/p>\n
He visits me sometimes in dreams, and we talk about things that I can never remember, but the fact that I recall that we\u2019ve talked makes me feel better for a while.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what we work out in those conversations, but I\u2019m sure he’s giving me friendly advice without pushing. And, I\u2019m starting all defensive and blocking him out, but then as I listen to his wisdom I realize that he\u2019s right. Somehow he\u2019s disarmed my pride, and I\u2019m able to accept what he\u2019s telling me.<\/p>\n
Yes, that\u2019s how he worked, for more years than I\u2019ve been alive.\u00a0 He came along side you and pulled the load for awhile, took the pressure off, and gave you choices to fix things.\u00a0 He was gentle like a breeze, but solid and unmoving as a rock.\u00a0 A man to be reckoned with, one who would go toe to toe with you until you stopped wrecking your life. He risked it all because he loved people. I never really thought about how much he loved other people. I was always thinking about how much he loved me, and wondering why, because I knew what I was.<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t stop him though.\u00a0He came sidling up to me at a dinner function one night\u2014sat down right next to me smiling and laughing.\u00a0 You see, he was a man of position, and had the respect of many people. There were over a hundred people he could have sat next to, but he chose to sit next to scruffy unshaven me, and eat his dinner.\u00a0 The conversation got around to the fact that I\u2019d been laid off from work. Well, after we\u2019d finished our dinner, he got right up and we went down to a barrel of food that he had. He dumped that thing over, and dug out the every last package with a cane that he found propped up against a wall.\u00a0 He was a generous man.<\/p>\n
He once told us about the soil of the earth, and how good it is, how we should let our kids play in it and get dirty once in a while.\u00a0 How it was good to work hard in it.\u00a0 He even made us put our hands into a box full of soil and feel it\u2014the good earth.\u00a0 It was something core to him, and he shared it with us.\u00a0 It was such a simple thing, but I\u2019ll never forget.<\/p>\n
Sometimes, after we\u2019ve had a talk in my dream, I\u2019ll sit out on the porch and listen to the wind blow through the trees as they sound like an ocean of waves.\u00a0 I walk out into the garden and pick up a handful of soil. I think about how I\u2019m living in a world without Dale Grubb, and then I think I am not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I now live in a world without Dale Grubb.\u00a0 I drove down the street today and saw the back of a man walking down the sidewalk, thinking it was Dale, and then my mind told me otherwise.\u00a0 Dale passed on three years ago.\u00a0 I miss him. He visits me sometimes in dreams, and we talk about things that I can never remember, but the fact that I recall that we\u2019ve talked makes me feel better for a while.\u00a0 I\u2019m not sure what we work out in those conversations, but I\u2019m sure he’s giving me friendly advice without pushing. And, I\u2019m starting all defensive and blocking him out, but then as I listen to his wisdom I realize that he\u2019s right. Somehow he\u2019s disarmed my pride, and I\u2019m able to accept what he\u2019s telling me. Yes, that\u2019s how he worked, for more years than I\u2019ve been alive.\u00a0 He came along side you and pulled the load for awhile, took the pressure off, and gave you choices to fix things.\u00a0 He was gentle like a breeze, but solid and unmoving as a rock.\u00a0 A man to be reckoned with, one who would go toe to toe with you until you stopped wrecking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-stories"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p32u0F-dw","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=6","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":0},"title":"Here comes the novel! After Lives\u2014coming soon.","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"January 16, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to KeithBPhillips.com. \u00a0My new novel will be released soon, and to get everyone excited about it I will be podcasting the first four chapters. \u00a0Stay tuned, final preparations are being made now. And here's the pitch: AFTER LIVES \u2014 Beyond death's door lies a second chance. Martin Coswell was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":555,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=555","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":1},"title":"The Automatic Detective \u2014 A. Lee Martinez: Book Review","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"July 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The Automatic Detective is exactly the kind of book I\u2019ve been looking for.\u00a0 A real fun mix of Scifi and Sam Spade.\u00a0 Martinez has just the right amount of gritty detective banter and Scifi gadgetry to keep me hanging on every word.\u00a0 What a great ride through the future world\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":292,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=292","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":2},"title":"Afterlives: The Novel is now available!","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"June 4, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Martin is a private investigator who gets involved in a mystery of galactic proportions. His second chance at life came with a great cost; he died and lost his family. Now he's been resurrected by the power of nanocells and has been hijacked into a search for the missing body\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/KindleCover-200x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2835,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2835","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":3},"title":"History Lesson","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"December 22, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Prologue Despite being new to humanity, Hellas Planitia had a long and very violent history. 3.9 billion years ago a large asteroid had slammed into the Martian surface, vaporizing it, and spreading debris seven thousand kilometers in every direction. The impact was so severe that it affected the core of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2613,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=2613","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":4},"title":"Mira","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"August 10, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"MIRA by Keith B. Phillips Omicron (\u03bf) Cetus, Mira (related to the words \"miraculous\", and \"ad-mire\", from Latin mirus, \"wonderful\"), is described as a deep garnet colored star located in the neck of the Whale or Sea-Monster. \u2014 The Constellation of Words She was late, but he didn\u2019t mind. It\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Stories"","block_context":{"text":"Stories","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=6"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.keithbphillips.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/img_0592.jpg?fit=428%2C344&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1086,"url":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?p=1086","url_meta":{"origin":838,"position":5},"title":"The Cage","author":"KeithBPhillips","date":"February 22, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"There's an eagle that lives at Bonnie Falls. As I write this, I am not particularly inspired. No great urgency of greatness rests upon me. I desire to do more, though. I want more out of my life than just existence and survival. For many years I have driven two\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/?cat=3"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2561,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions\/2561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.keithbphillips.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}