Category: Life

The July 4th Effect

Matt Talford

The sight and smell of gunpowder smoke in the air… The constant cracking and popping… The loud booms… all coming from all directions…  Overwhelming…  For the first time in my post-military service life, the July 4th fireworks bothered me.   Yesterday, as I played doubles with my friends under the twilight and eventual nighttime sky… as I struggled to focus on playing the points, all while trying to steel my nerves, I constantly had to remind myself that I was neither on a military installation, nor deployed to a combat…

Patience: A Necessary Ingredient for Success

Matt Talford

In life, when you’re trying to accomplish something big, sometimes, you just have to wait.  No matter how badly you want that garden to spring up quickly, a seed planted in even the best soil is not going to germinate and sprout until it’s time. No matter how much water or plant food you apply to your rows, those vegetables are simply not going to appear overnight.  In fact, if do too much to your garden, you risk destroying it (and thus throwing away all those hours of planning and hard…

Are You Operating in Your Gifts?

Matt Talford

What Are Gifts? By its dictionary definition, a gift is something given willingly to someone without payment.  I like to further that definition by saying that a gift is something given to a person, that he or she did not ask for.  Gifts are also defined as “natural talents or abilities” (which is the basis from which I write this article). So, it is generally accepted by most, that everyone (including you) has one or more of these “natural talents or abilities”; the question is, have you identified yours?  If…

The Long Journey Back

Matt Talford

He saw her tears. He felt her pain. He wanted to dry her eyes, help her to heal, make her smile. Before long, he began to help, in any way he could. Before long, he saw his gift. Before long, he began to love, care and fight for others. After long, he had loved, cared and fought for so many, he had lost his way… lost touch with himself. Though he was born a fighter, and knew well how to fight for himself and for others, and though he was…

13 Quick Ways To Keep Your Cool When Your Faith Is Under Fire

Matt Talford
13 Quick Tips

Here are 13  Quick Ways To Keep Your Cool When Your Faith Is Under Fire: There was a point in my life when it was hard for me to answer this question because everything in my life was going well. I had a beautiful wife, a corporate career with a nice salary, great friends and an active social life. Suddenly, something entered my life that seemed insurmountable to human eyes, and seemingly impossible to overcome. It wasn’t until I turned around and remembered God’s words that I realized that even…

Army EFMB Memories

Matt Talford

While browsing Facebook recently, I read an article and watched a video about an Army captain who collapsed near the finish line at her EFMB road march, the final stage of the U.S. Army’s Expert Field Medical Badge training and field trials.  The article (link at bottom of this page) appears to be at least a couple years old, but seeing it for the first time reminded me of my own experience with the EFMB some 25 years ago….   My goal was to break the Ft. Polk post record for the EFMB…

Tennis and Friendships

Matt Talford

  Facebook says we became friends six years ago, but I’ve known Scott a lot longer (since 2004 perhaps). Anyway, I remember the first time I met him… I didn’t know him back then, but we were both members at the Tega Cay Tennis Club. I knew his wife Susan because she and I both worked at Microsoft. When she learned I was a tennis player, she asked if I’d met her husband Scott. I told her “No,” but that I knew we’d eventually meet playing at the same club……

Three Things You Should Consider Doing Everyday

Matt Talford

I know I haven’t written anything in a while.  Life sometimes has a funny way of interrupting our “plans” ?…  At any rate, I wanted to share a quick thought that I hope helps someone else as much as it helps me! Take it easy, if you’re going to work hard, play equally hard and rest equally hard… and above all, take time out to pray and show gratitude everyday. God Bless! -MT

A Bittersweet Milestone

Matt Talford

Today marks a major milestone in my journey. It was Thursday, April 21st, 2011, that I received what was technically a life-saving operation to remove a completely obstructed section of my small intestine, which had been affected by the presence of a tumor that was described to me as “a silent killer.” With each day that passes, that critical period in my life drifts further into my past; yet somehow I find I am both happy and sad at the same time. Though my oncologist said that reaching the 5-yr…