The Timberline Letter

The smoke pits are the beating heart of Terry Black’s Barbecue Restaurant. The aroma, thick enough to chew, drifts up over the pits like a fog bank. After dinner, my natural curiosity pulled me to the smoke pits. I stood in the shadows, watching the pit-master, half-concealed by the smoky clouds, systematically lift the heavy pit lids, stoke the orange coals, and meticulously arrange the various m...

In 1988, Bieke Vandekerckhove, a 19-year-old university student in her native Belgium, was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease). At that time, the average life span with ALS after diagnoses was two to five years. She lived 27 years with it. Her only book, The Taste of Silence (English translation from Liturgical Press, 2015), is a beautiful, candid, sometimes searing, but wise view of her jou...

In my childhood home, it was common to hear my dad laugh until he cried. He inherited that laugh from my grandma. I remember my friend’s face lighting up as my dad’s laughter shook the house. “I love your daddy’s laugh,” she told me. I treasured this effect his joy had on others. I was proud of him, not only for the things he had accomplished, but also for the humor he carried with him. I still am...

In the summer of 1992, while driving a dirt road near his Pratt, Kansas home, my dad saw a tractor—driverless—rolling across a field, pulling a land leveler. Dad felt a chill. He owned that equipment. His brother Harold had borrowed it and would have been driving it down that very road about that time. Dad soon found Harold lying beside the road. He was fully conscious, but Dad could see he was fa...

When I was nine years old, I wanted a bicycle more than anything. If you had a bike, the world was yours. Anything was possible. But bikes were expensive, and you could outgrow one so quickly. In 1961, my parents bought me a J.C. Higgins 26” Flightliner Bicycle for Christmas. Sears’ top of the line bike was red with whitewall tires, dual headlights, rear luggage rack, and chrome fenders. It was on...

My neurosurgeon declared my back a disaster zone. “You’ve got major problems in every part of your back, all the way down.” My MRI agreed; weird twists, turns and dead ends. Doc said it best, “Your back looks like a pack mule’s path down into the mine.” As the Los Angeles firestorm raged a few miles from my hospital room, needles had invaded veins in both my hands in preparation for my back surger...

As young Christian leaders, Bruce and Lenore Mitchell took God, life, their marriage, and faith seriously. But then something strange happened. Bruce began to feel they should give their possessions away. Furniture. Appliances. Even wedding gifts. Everything. After a few days, he cautiously shared his feelings with Lenore, only to discover she felt the same thing. She had been struggling with how...

In 2011, my husband and I had just moved to Japan when the Tohoku earthquake—a 9.1 on the Richter scale—violently jolted the continent. Though we were four hours north of the epicenter, I thought a semi had slammed into our townhome. Doors slammed shut and open during the 6-minute terror. Had our shipment of household goods not been delayed, the earthquake would have thrown our dishes from the cab...

A dear friend’s wife struggled with multiple sclerosis for over forty years. Then, during emergency surgery, she suffered a heart attack. When that same surgery revealed extensive cancer, they knew the end was near. To read my friend’s email about that grueling trial is to stand at the edge of a deep, wide, and humbling canyon. Yet, he summed it up so simply: “ Life has to be lived in all the ways...

In 2015, I was cast as Annelle (the Daryl Hannah role) in “Steel Magnolias” at a small Phoenix theater. The theater was located in the corner of a strip mall, but it felt like I was on Broadway. He, my Great Uncle Wiley, was in the audience! Wiley was a giant of a man. A hunter, fisherman, golfer, business leader, and world-class uncle. As a little girl, growing up near them in Colorado, I was far...

Christmas of 1954 came ten years after my dad’s ship, the USS Princeton , was destroyed in the World War II Battle of Leyte Gulf. That hurled Dad into a long struggle with a psychological python. It also pulled him into wrestling with God; he prayed long and loud in our little house. Dad and his God scared me. That’s why my brothers and I grew up in the shadow of The Princeton . Also In 1954, Dad...

As I turned into the military cemetery, I was happy to know that Wes Dahlberg, my dad, and my mother, Dee, would finally rest together. Their cremated remains sat side-by-side in my car’s back seat. Dad’s brass and mother- of-pearl cremation urn gleamed like a new sculpture. My mother’s identical urn showed nine years of tarnish as it awaited my father’s remains. All was now ready for their burial...

Astronomers believe the universe is about 93 billion light years in diameter, and that it holds about ten trillion galaxies. That number is likely a big underestimation, but it doesn’t matter. My head cannot grasp that information. In fact, look into any detail, direction, or dimension of anything; the only thing we know is that we don’t know. We don’t even know what we think we know. Apart from c...

As a newlywed back in 2008, I had just made myself a luscious bowl of yogurt and apples, garnished with oatmeal and cinnamon. I headed through the kitchen in my robe, cradling my precious breakfast as though it came from Le Cordon Bleu . In my fervor, I nearly collided with my bleary-eyed husband. Rather than his customary “Good morning, beautiful,” he looked down at my bountiful bowl and grumbled...

I tried to be invisible as I scoped out the restaurant, a future rendezvous spot with our son’s family. But, as I scanned the menu and the ambiance, the six-foot three, early-30s host spotted me, blowing my cover. “How many, please?” “Uh, none. I’m just checking out your restaurant.” The host’s grin commanded his entire face. I returned an uncomfortable smile. “So, what do you do when you’re not h...

Written by: Craig Dahlberg Narrated by: Kara Lea Kennedy Have you ever met a human pilot light, one always ready to ignite the flame of kindness in others? Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe

When World War II ended, the U.S. Navy released Jack Chinn to return to Kansas and rejoin his own life. Like many veterans, Dad brought the war home. Inevitably, his fatherhood borrowed a military model. I think that's why he was a stranger to me; it was impossible for a child to connect with a battle-scorched warrior. I needed but couldn’t find him; I later learned he looked for me too. But the c...

You can't always control what's in the picture, but with the proper framing of a canvas, all else falls away. Author: Craig Dahlberg Narrator: Kara Lea Kennedy Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timberlineletter.substack.com/subscrib...

When I wrote for a conservative journal several years ago, one day my editor asked me to become more combative against “liberals.” When I told him I was not good at that, I heard myself say something I did not know before that moment: “God’s signature is written across every human heart; I’d rather speak to that signature.” To my surprise, he said, “Well, we sure need someone around here who can d...

I tore across our field, maxing out the 24 horsepower, zero-turn mowing monster. A day of peaceful yard work quickly turned awry when my husband tromped through the grass, wearing his “I’m a man and I know machines” face. I knew he wasn’t approaching to tell me how pretty I was in my ball cap and tee shirt bearing the image of E.T., so I begrudgingly brought the mower to a stop. He yelled somethin...

Twenty-five years ago, The Cluetrain Manifesto published “95 Theses” built around their observance of markets as conversations. Consider the top five of their theses: * Markets are conversations. * Markets consist of human beings, not demographic sectors. * Conversations among human beings  sound  human. They are conducted in a human voice. * Whether delivering information, opinions, perspectives,...

Humans are carriers. We carry germs, car keys, dirty dishes, and other things. But sometimes we also leave essential things in the atmosphere.  Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get ac...

One of the greatest lines in history—six one-syllable words—comes from the old hymn, Amazing Grace : “ Twas blind, but now I see .” That so often inscribes the summation of an act, a relationship, a failure, even a reach for the good. On October 30, 2007, a doctor dropped a diagnosis of cancer on Joanne, my wife. Over the following five months, we lived in a shadowland of sirens screaming through...

Stand, stable, in every season. Like a tree. Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe

Listen to the sounds that move you, the things that breathe inspiration into your bones, the voices that splash sound waves against your ear’s cochlea, the Spirit that breathes sound into your soul. Conversation between father and son: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AY35eXTKVLY Get full access to The Timberline Letter at timberlineletter.substack.com/subscribe Get full access to The Timberline Le...