Local News from Across the Rainy River District
I’m writing this column 30,000 feet above the South Pacific Ocean – somewhere north of Bora Bora and French Polynesia. South of Hawaii. Above me, a thousand stars sprawl across night’s canopy. Below, the Vantablack ocean stirs. To say I’m carrying a full heart and enriched spirit feels like an […]
For many, there are moments when the mind feels like a butterfly trapped in a hurricane. Fragile wings caught in roaring winds. Fighting to stay aloft against a storm that never seems to end. From an outside vantage point, the struggle can look invisible. Even gentle. The butterfly flutters. It […]
Last month we took a look at the importance of focus and took a few steps toward being able to focus well. This month we’ll take some more steps towards improving our ability to focus. It’s been said that having the ability to focus well is like a superpower. We’ve […]
It’s a memorable (if not magical) thing when professionalism meets side-eyes, smiles and sarcasm – the kind of story everyone asks to hear again and again. Years ago, I was recruited out of Minneapolis as an educator and orator when our region was rapidly changing. New industries meant new needs […]
We are born into a world of words. Like countless others, words define my life — first as an avid reader of stacks of Archie comic books, later as an educator, later as an author. It’s easy to think of words as tools, mere instruments of communication, or sonic stepping-stones […]
Often, I wonder if the universe utilizes my days and nights as a personal comic book for itself. When life gets too relaxed or predictable on my end, the universe seems to say: “Nope, today you’re my entertainment, Rob.” It was May. The buds on the trees were bursting in […]
First love arrives like sunrise over a sleeping city. Equally inevitable and undeniable as dawn slowly flooding everything with impossible gold. It is a new beginning… one you had no idea you were waiting for. Suddenly, an ordinary life lifts into a new unpredictable world. The simplest gestures begin to […]
If you’re anything like me you may sometimes notice your thoughts jumping around rather wildly. When our minds are jumpy we tend to feel unsettled and find it hard to focus on one thing at a time. This can be frustrating to live with. A lack of focus usually slows […]
It was a Tuesday night, the kind of late spring evening that isn’t quite warm yet but carries the conjuring of seasonal change. My best friend Dan and I merged onto Interstate 94 with purpose. A mission. A destination. The goal was simple: Tool’s long-awaited album Lateralus was being released […]
There is an incredibly special place—a short southbound drive from our beautiful borderland, just past the town of Eveleth. Equal parts sanctuary, summons, and spark. It is a place of pilgrimage I’ve returned to for the last twenty years for silent reflection. On October 4, 2025, I again walked the […]
My friends packed into the Canada Life Centre to see Korn this weekend. They came back buzzing – elated from the power of the show. Listening to them reminded me of another band etched into the soundtrack of my youth – one that may not carry the same global recognition […]
If you fall in love with a language that you speak and teach, could that very language redefine your concept of love all together? I think so. In fact, I know so. Knowing, learning, and speaking a language can affect and shape the way one thinks. This is because every […]
