This book is more than a devotional. There are already shelves full of devotionals, many of them good and helpful. What there are not many of - perhaps hardly any at all - are modern-day parables. Stories rooted in the world we actually live in. Stories shaped by the Gulf breeze, by the rumble of surf on Padre Island, by the long shadows of aging, by the quiet courage of ordinary people, and by the hard-won wisdom that comes only after life has knocked you around a bit. As I approach my ninetieth birthday, I find myself looking back over a life that has been anything but simple. I was raised in a strict fundamentalist home where anything that felt good or tasted good was suspect, and where faith was often tangled up with fear. I know firsthand what spiritual child abuse feels like - the kind that leaves a person afraid of joy, suspicious of grace, and unsure whether God is pleased with anything at all. This book is, in part, my way of offering an escape route for anyone who grew up under that same heavy hand. Not an escape from faith - but an escape into a faith that breathes. Thanks for the help, Ralph