Recently, within a twenty-four hour period I climbed the “Incline” and wandered a prayer labyrinth. The juxtaposition intrigued me; two paths could not be more different. The one-mile Incline hike ascends from Manitou Springs at an average grade of 40%. Formerly a tourist cable car route, it slices straight up a mountain, visible across Colorado…Read more The Most Important Path
Author: Fragments of Light
Offering – Pondering the Lives of Mother Teresa Sisters
Kenya, 2001 (somewhere near Nairobi's second largest slum) Blinking in the transition from blazing equatorial sunlight to sacred shadows, we hesitate in the foyer. The sanctuary stretches before us, an ordination service for new Sisters already in progress. Rows of simple benches packed to capacity march along concrete floors. I spot an open space in…Read more Offering – Pondering the Lives of Mother Teresa Sisters
September Winds
Like yellow edges of purple sky, through the years we intertwine, defy, ever-widening, roiling sky as long as we can side-by-side. Until leaves like portents sigh... Amber swirling through the green, we cling to fading songs of being, face-to-face with sinking sun, still side-by-side. Here, in these wistful fields of September wind, it is you…Read more September Winds
Sacred Center Holds
For weeks I watched its stems and leaves unfurl from soil and climb into a lanky silhouette, stretching for sunrise. It seemed to be a flower of some sort, and I was curious for its culminating shape and color to emerge. But when it did, I was surprised. Wispy white tendrils burst from the center. Not…Read more Sacred Center Holds
What I love about blogging
It’s like I am standing on one end of a simple footbridge, a path I’ve walked and loved for years; but I’m suddenly skittish and afraid to cross. That’s how I feel about writing and sharing my art and photography today. Two days ago, I received the humbling encouragement that my post was selected for…Read more What I love about blogging
A Secret Garden That Changed My Life (In Vietnam)
We explore a silky summer evening, airbrushed with cool mountain air and golden sinking light. Newly arrived in Steamboat Springs, we wander west. The river is gift enough, flowing like laughter between us. One of those rare series of moments when you feel so alive, so present to where you are, so thankful to love…Read more A Secret Garden That Changed My Life (In Vietnam)
Open Road
Opportunity curves gray beyond where eye can see, cleaves fields and hills, leaps into hazy purple clouds far far away. Red tractor shimmers in fading sun, what matters most blazes into sharp relief. Green stalks grow like dreams, with only an expanse of blue to touch. Spiral bales keep watch over those passing through. There are…Read more Open Road
I long to go…
tranquil night-drifts earth-sleep stirs trembling, probing, churning, melding massive emergence black iron forging onward rhythmic unconquerable cadence surging, surging into the unknown – midnight giant with haunting calls summons all restless wandering souls and I long to go I long to go and I long to go
Camera joyfully in-hand
When I traveled to Vietnam in 2009, the country's beauty simply stunned me. I shot multiple rolls of film with my trusty old SLR only to discover when I developed them that I'd had a setting off and my images were ruined. I played around with Photoshop and managed to salvage one of my favorite photos of a bike, at least in…Read more Camera joyfully in-hand
Alive, truly alive
Truly he was alive in a way that few attain. Many aspire, but only sweat, tears, and blood yield this type of alive-ness. It wasn’t his choice to lay it all down at the feet of suffering. But he did choose, by the grace of God, to keep living. When I was “stuck” in Kenya,…Read more Alive, truly alive
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 