Author Archives: Matt Balleza

It’s a well known, widely accepted, peer reviewed fact that the greatest gift you can give your mother for Mother’s Day is not flowers or hugs or a kiss on the cheek; it’s not a pretty card with a thoughtful note inside saying how much you miss her and how much she means to you;Continue reading “Sprinkles on Sprinkles: a Mother’s Day toast”

I am watching something beautiful unfold before my eyes this morning. High on the rooftop a few houses away, there is a group of men scraping shingles off. They are seated in a row along the top edge of the roofline, their legs hanging down the steep slope. They are harnessed and roped at theContinue reading “A glimpse of beauty”

The juicy connection between love songs, delight, and the daily grind. Many gears have come to a halt lately, but inwardly I feel the same go-go-go as before; the sense that time is on a short fuse and my plans are moving on white waters; that I must be paddling ahead, learning, improving, optimizing, masteringContinue reading “Serenade me”

I’ve been working on a new story the past few months. It’s about a ho-hum security guard who unexpectedly finds himself in possession of a strange ‘gift’ or ability- one he doesn’t quite understand and which begins to complicate his life and the lives of others. Being somewhere in the middle of the plot, IContinue reading “Don’t be afraid to break a glass”

A few weeks ago the New York Times ran an article about an avant-garde tribe of venture capitalists who are investing in shrooms, psychedelics, astrology, and other sundry forms of altered-state wellness businesses. The cover image depicted a unicorn galloping with a trail of starry shrooms behind it. It was clever and catchy and madeContinue reading “The Wellness Bluff”

It is a surreal experience to be voluntarily housebound under the threat of the coronavirus in one of Boston’s most densely populated buroughs. We live on the third floor of a multi unit house, and where I write from, by the bay windows overlooking the street, I have only a peep of the world beyond.Continue reading “Dispatch from quarantine”

Whenever I sit down to write something that I believe, at face value, to be straightforward, bite-size, and clear, I find that midway into the writing of it, the subject magically expands and grows in shape like a slowly filling water balloon. The topic, whatever it is, usually contains more than I allow. This happenedContinue reading “Unhelmet”

There’s few experiences from my elementary school days that I would willingly return to- body, mind, and spirit- but if I could, I would teleport back to youth football practice, to my illustrious career on the Green Hornets, where, during one exceptional season I played both fullback, cornerback, linebacker, running back, and lineman — eachContinue reading “Practice makes purpose: a short case for rolling in the mud”

Not every day do I get to strap pinions to my back and dress us as a chubby cherubim and fill my quiver with love arrows and shoot them at whoever I want, but today I do. And I’m shooting you. As your self appointed Cupid I’m entitled to give you a word about tomorrow,Continue reading “A pre Valentines pep talk”

Why cools things flump. You haven’t thought about a Segway in a long time. You’re not even sure they still make Segway’s anymore – that is, until you walk downtown and see a fellow in a helmet leading his pod of gliding chariots over the bumpy asphalt. No, the Segway is not extinct. But itContinue reading “How to pimp a Segway”