"The light that is hard won offers the greatest illumination. A gift wrestled from bleakness will often confer a sense of sureness and grounding of the self, a strengthening proportionate to the travail of its birth." Beauty by John O'Donohue, page 79.
Spiritual journey
Joy Hunt
Sr. Fidence was like a beautiful rose in my hand, but her fragrance drifted just beyond my grasp as she stood there barefoot, her white-draped physical being unable to contain an other-worldly joy. I didn't understand her at all. I wanted to, desperately. How, in the midst of despair and hardship, hunger and lack, did…Read more Joy Hunt
Surrender
I feel his anguish as I paint. The hunger, the sting of salt, the despair. When there is nothing left to say or do, just shadows of essence barely clinging to the horizon. Then, the letting go. When every last vestige of control slips irrevocably into churning depths. When everything you fear most emerges…Read more Surrender
The Bird Must Fly
It's the heart splayed, soul displayed feeling. Vulnerable, that's how it feels to walk into a new gallery with art in hand, even if you already know your piece is accepted into the show. And even more so in a new city. A new city, and yet an old city. I graduated from the University…Read more The Bird Must Fly
Arise (2)
Song of Solomon 2:10-13 “My beloved responded and said to me, ‘Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, And come along. For behold, the winter is past, The rain is over and gone. The flowers have already appeared in the land; The time has arrived for pruning the vines, And the voice of the turtledove…Read more Arise (2)
Arise
There you are, backed into a corner, walls closing in, ceiling compressing and floor heaving to meet it. Suffering has a way of whittling the world down into compact space with infinite feeling. Like a tiny dandelion in a vast open field, exposed. Like the deafening silence of lonely cries withheld in a crowded room, because no one will…Read more Arise
Unless A Grain of Wheat Falls….
All around me the earth flutters. Dreaming of the future, it sends messages like little notes for tomorrow, twirling in gray dawn sky, like rain. The tree is determined to hope. How does the tree know it is time? How am I here at just this moment to witness its innermost thoughts? No one tells the tree,…Read more Unless A Grain of Wheat Falls….
Tend Your Soul
Recently I painted a friend's "safe place." Turbulent waters threaten her survival; and in her mind, she swims to a quiet, peaceful space to weep, dream, hope, and gain new strength before plunging back into the storm. Places possess power. Yesterday I wandered one of my own safe places, a prayer labyrinth buried deep in the…Read more Tend Your Soul
Kitengela
Fall down the rabbit hole. Slip through the looking glass. Tip toe across the hanging bridge. However it is you arrive, this is most certainly a magical “other” sort of place. With each step, my eyes open wider and my soul expands. Once over the swinging bridge, glass mosaic underfoot, like a hint of what…Read more Kitengela
For the Ragged and Beautiful
https://www.facebook.com/fragmentsoflight/videos/1283437661683835/ In 2002, my dear friend Nicole Gillin and I volunteered together with a small team serving at Mother Teresa's Home for Abandoned Children in Nairobi. We've never been the same. Last week we collaborated to create this dance to share our changed hearts at the Flourish 2016 Recital. Blessed Are the Peacemakers Blessed…Read more For the Ragged and Beautiful
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 