So... I started a blog.

Sitting at John Wayne Airport, I finally found the time to start a blog. Some times in life I guess I just need forced time to wait in order to find time to do things I want to do, but never quite get around to doing. Something about flying home as well took the pressure off of picking a blog name. I tried to start this a few weeks ago, only to come across the extreme pressure of finding the perfect blog name. When you have creative friends with names like "Cowgirls Typewrite", "Life is a Journey", "Californian Eskimo", "The Brandon Legacy" and "Life in Canada, Eh!" it gets intimidating. So, finally I was able to put the pressure aside, and a name I'm happy with just surfaced here in my seat, watching planes take off. Kick your feet back, maybe grab a nice cup of joe, and let me explain.

Anyone that knows me well would understand that I'm adventurous. Even my mom absolutely recognizes this with my latest hobby escapades. Yet, at the same time I really like to take time to think - do a little digesting of the more serious things in life. The question became how do you combine adventure and thought in a single blog with a title to grab both. Then I thought of the word Rugged. I like this word because it gets at not only the adventure and challenging side of journeys into the great blue yonder, but it moves toward the explanation of a heart still in progress - still getting refined. But what does Rugged describe? I thought of soul, or the journey, but taking a step back to early college brought the word "heart" from Wild at Heart. A little less serious than soul, but a little more meaningful than "story" or "life" it gets at describing myself - a Rugged Heart.

So, where do I go from there? I needed some way to describe what I aimed at here in this blog. Then the word Tales came about. I love a good story, and I love the idea of "tales" that brings about thoughts of the western frontier, the cowboy alone with his horse and thoughts, or the mountain man venturing along to worlds unknown. I'm not the best at telling stories, but none the less I like to share them. That's what I aim to do here - to create a space cataloging random adventures, lessons learned, and miscellaneous thoughts. To have a place to share where refining has taken place, to share where adventure was experienced, and to share thoughts for encouragement to others.

So, welcome to my blog. I'm excited to share this adventure with you, and glad that you're interested in reading along.