If you asked me what I loved most in my life, there would be an interesting theme among the people and experiences that are included in my reply.

I didn’t initially pursue any of the things I now love the most. They were just given. Presented. Laid out before me. Graced.

It was never any great intention of mine to get married. But I now find my wife Lisa to be my greatest support and source of enjoyment. I’m lonely when I’m not with her. She knows me deeply, but the great honor of my life is that she wants to know me deeply. She’s especially smart in the ways I am not, and adorably weak in some of the ways I am strong… so I still get to feel useful in the whole thing.

I never had dreams of wanting to be a father. But I now find my sons Beckett and Thatcher to be this strange gravity for my heart to orbit. I’ve never before wanted to teach someone so much, nor have I wanted to learn so much from someone… and yet all the while I don’t care if either of those things actually occur as long as we can spend time together.

I didn’t set out with some great entrepreneurial spirit to start a “creative agency.” But I now find that there is no other work that I could see myself doing at this stage of life. Work is a struggle and a joy, and it’s deeply instructive. Being an owner and having a partner and being a “boss” … doing great work and never feeling like your work is good enough … feeling deeply qualified, trusting my perspective and taste and also feeling like a fraud who makes stuff up as I go — these tensions are a heavy humidity in the air I breathe as I work. They make me sweat. But somehow, humidity also helps you breath better.

I didn’t chose when I was born (1981) or where I grew up (Baltimore, Maryland).

I got cut from every high school sports team I tried out for, but enjoyed being on our school’s Mock Trial team. Twice we were state champions. I also sang a lot with various choirs, chorales, and ensembles in our high school.

My high school Young Life leader basically forced me to go to the same college he did (James Madison University). While at JMU, I ran a marathon, sang with The Madison Project, and turned the basement of our off-campus house (dubbed The Treehaus) into a 100-person music venue for touring indie-folk-rock musicians.

After college, a couple friends of mine decided to drive across the country together. I joined in. We bought a school bus and converted it into an RV. While in California, I ended up kissing Bob Barker on stage at The Price Is Right and spinning the big wheel. (No, I didn’t play Plinko.)

A few years later, a friend made his own home recording studio. I decided to write and record an album, “Lovers Try.”

Started Blue Ocean Ideas.

Got married.

Had a kid.

Bought a house.

Had another kid

That brings us up to about now.

I get to spend most of every day contributing to improving the lives of a small but important group of people: our clients and their families, and, by extension, their clients and their families, and by extension, their clients and their families, and…