Thank you very much for visiting The BridgeMaker. My name is Alex Blackwell. Mary Beth, my wife, and I live in Overland Park, Kansas. We share four great children and live an ordinary life in the heartland of the United States.

Ordinary not in the sense our lives are mundane or lack passion; but ordinary in the sense we, too, face our share of challenges and disappointments mixed in with the exciting victories and true happiness we also discover along the way.

I started blogging in April, 2007 with the launch of The Next 45 Years. This past July (2008) I made the decision to stop producing that blog in order to begin work on this one. While The Next 45 Years was successful, it really didn’t provide the focus, or direction, I wanted to go in the blogging world.

The BridgeMaker is my attempt to acknowledge the pain I have experienced in my life while at the same time providing compassion and inspiration to others. It is my hope each of you will be part of this journey through your involvement with this blog.

What is a Bridgemaker?
Bridgemakers span the gap between pain and healing. Bridgemakers are wounded healers who can identify with those who are suffering. Bridgemakers learn compassion through their own endurance of pain. We all have the capacity to be Bridgemakers when we make the choice to show compassion and grace to others.