Spiritual journey

Of Loss and Hope

  The grief, the loss of what she had hoped for, lapped as relentlessly, as inevitably, as the breakers crashing again and again—minute after minute, day after day. Repeating their reach and retreat for millennia. Tumbling like so much seaweed, all of what-almost-was washed ashore, only to be drug back out again. Over and over.…Read more Of Loss and Hope

One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples

I wrote this entry for the Hope's Promise blog about my dear friends, Brian and Debbie Lee. Decades ago, when I was a twenty-something campus staffworker with InterVarsity, they were leading teams of students to serve in Kenya. One summer they brought back necklace gifts with little hand-carved bone pendants for all the staff. As…Read more One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples

Summer Between

    This summer is all about harvest. I still live in the city, so I'm not talking about wheat crops. No, it's a season of celebrating the growing things I love most, my children. Our oldest is thriving in a serious relationship with a woman we adore; and he will move out of state…Read more Summer Between

Always Held

For Lilia, my children, and  the many others around the world who ache for a different beginning... This is what really happened... You slip into the world raw and trembling, aching for tender touch. But instead, the one you most long for walks away. You huddle there, vulnerable in an abandoned building, or a slum…Read more Always Held

A 25 Year Flame (25 years of marriage)

When I was just twenty-years-old, God lit the flame. I stood in the kitchen with my mom, probably doing something mundane like cleaning up after dinner, and divulged - I know who I want to marry. Perhaps she thought I was too young; but then again, she pledged her heart to a lifelong love (44…Read more A 25 Year Flame (25 years of marriage)

Soul Cravings

As I mentioned in a previous blog post, I am writing a fiction book. Some days I think I'm crazy to invest so much time and heart into something that may never see the light of day. Discouragement pushes me down. But most days, I am urged along by something deep inside, stronger than the…Read more Soul Cravings

Love – The Search Is On

I once lived, moved and breathed right smack in the heart of the biblical parable of the lost sheep, albeit contextualized for Colorado Springs, Colorado. Now, in these parts, at least in the city, we don’t herd many sheep; but we do have cliffs, frigid winter nights, and hungry predators. And we adore our animals, especially…Read more Love – The Search Is On

The Final Portal

Just a few days ago we visited a friend in hospice care. I recognized the signs: he stood on heaven's threshhold. Today he crossed over. Strange, the straddling of two worlds. The one leaving, caught betwixt and between, seeing one and then the other. While those who walk with them weep for the coming reality,…Read more The Final Portal

Art on the Altar

Last year, 2017, dawned hopeful. At long last, I stood before a faint but visible trail in the forest. After years of scrambling in the brambles, I set off down the path. I stumbled on the trail-head in a gallery in the Santa Fe Arts District of Denver. Late in 2016, I responded to a…Read more Art on the Altar

Hallelujahs in the Night

Isaiah 50:10, “Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord and relies upon his God?” The treasures of darkness come not to those who avoid pain and suffering. Instead, the treasures of darkness lie…Read more Hallelujahs in the Night