art

Songs in the Valley

“It doesn’t look as bad as it did yesterday,” my ever-honest 12 year old tried to encourage me. I asked my husband, “Is it really bad?” “I like some of your other pieces better,” he conceded. I gave it one last look, and shredded it. Every piece of artwork, for me, seems to pass through…Read more Songs in the Valley

Orphans in Nepal

Nepal is world-renowned for towering majestic mountains, fertile terraced fields, and verdant valleys. Nepal is no less than the magical, enticing destination that Tourist Guidebooks claim. But Nepal also subsists amongst the ten poorest countries in the world. Until a decade ago, she was the world’s only Hindu Kingdom; now secularized, karma, fatalism, dharma, and the resulting caste system still…Read more Orphans in Nepal

Trees

As a kid growing up in Black Forest, trees were my favorite place to while away a summer day: scent of pine, sticky sap, whispering wind, choosing the next limb to climb ever higher, a quiet kingdom of my very own. Still at points of stress, I like to think about trees. Something about their…Read more Trees

Healing

In my heart I keep a safety vault for fossils:  petrified wounds from the past. Bricks of self-protection mount an imposing barrier. As long as these hardened relics remain quarantined (even from myself), perhaps they can be kept from provoking further pain. But, what if there is another way?  What if these fossils could be…Read more Healing

Safe passage

Life is anything but safe. Its twists and turns leave me breathless, sometimes in wonder and sometimes in shock. “Is all of this going anywhere?” I am prone to ruminate in my weaker moments. But for all my own wrestling, my heart’s greatest vulnerability lies in watching my children tangle with the dangers of life, particularly…Read more Safe passage

Summoned

Lying flat out on my belly, face down in the sand: vulnerable, defenseless. Suddenly, out of nowhere, like Moses's burning bush, like Jacob’s ladder, the summons comes: terror and hope. Terrible hope. If I am wrong, I am just here in the dirt, more aware of it than ever. But anticipation is trembling like air…Read more Summoned

My Dad’s Canoe

Shadowed land recedes. Oars undulate water, cadence of myriad droplets shift the expanse. How far? Where do the ripples cease in this expanse where we are the only catalyst? Wordless we settle the oars at our sides, lean back. All is still. Water tranquil as glass. Thick early morning clouds lean low like a lover…Read more My Dad’s Canoe