gratitude

Greyhound Revelry

  Today I need to laugh. So, if you will indulge me, I will deviate from my usual deeper-spiritual-journey-fare for purely-fun-greyhound-revelry. About twenty years ago we met our first member of the breed. Rico. He shook and trembled onto our old wood floors and right on into our hearts. When he died, I buried a…Read more Greyhound Revelry

Summer Day

As summer exhales its last breaths, I give thanks for its many gifts. Soon spontaneity will yield to regimen, a house cascading with myriad voices of four children and friends will settle into silent swaths of hours. The solitude I crave beckons. Like the wistful weary feeling at the end of a hot afternoon spent playing with…Read more Summer Day

Colorado Magic

From the intricate details of a Columbine wildflower to skies soaring over mountain peaks, Colorado is truly a magic place. I am prone to sudden and frequent exclamations to my children, "Do you realize how blessed we are to live here!?" As I roam my home state, chasing after my kids' baseball games this summer, wonder and gratitude…Read more Colorado Magic

Summer Has Come

Time and space for painting and writing is scarce this summer. Without accessing those deep creative parts of my being, at times I feel dry and out-of-touch with myself and with God. But I am simultaneously aware that my heart is storing away moments like treasures from a far-away land. Moments in time that, when there…Read more Summer Has Come

Love Conquers All

  I chase you through the tree-tops into sun-soggy memories. Pig-tails flapping, giggling, chased by the strongest man in the world. And when you catch me, the most tender of all. In the meadow there, we laugh, intoxicated by the scent of wildflowers and pine trees, the glitter of morning. For a moment, you are…Read more Love Conquers All

Light & Dark – Artist Process

For the last year-and-a-half I've walked an artistic tightrope, balancing between the delicate, spontaneous vibrancy of watercolors, and the dramatic, expressive quality of black charcoal line. I love both. Neither feels complete to me without the other. I “killed” more than a few pieces when the charcoal reared a more menacing head than I intended and over-powered…Read more Light & Dark – Artist Process

You Are What I Need

  I am only a dust storm, a disembodied haze, rushing through this searing day. Here, amongst these muted hues, restless, wandering, nowhere to hide, un-done. A tumble-weed reeling, all of me leaning through this desert singing of striated skies with cactus blooms straining and orange mallow urging – they hurry me on. They know what I need…Read more You Are What I Need

The Woman at the Well in Haiti

I fall in step behind an old woman who pads along the rocky path in bare feet, carrying empty plastic jugs. We trek single-file along a ridge, with ochre corn fields sprawling beneath layers of purple hills and mountains, crowned by cerulean sky. To our left, various structures perch along the ridge - roughly hewn, boarded boxes…Read more The Woman at the Well in Haiti

Painting My Gratitude

Early in the morning, before the sun, I rise in a shadowed sleepy house. Shaking dreams from the edges of my mind, I cradle the Book. Eager, expectant, this my most treasured hour. I listen to steady slow breathing, rising from rooms all around. Overcome, my heart swells and overflows. It seeps and fills every…Read more Painting My Gratitude

Grappling with the American/Vietnam War, Part 2 (of 2)

continued from my previous post… The Vietnam/American War resulted in a sharp increase in orphaned and abandoned children. Between 1966 and 1974, the number of children cared for by orphanages more than doubled (The War Cradle). Thousands of abandoned children, especially Amerasian children, were evacuated because of the fear that they would be killed by…Read more Grappling with the American/Vietnam War, Part 2 (of 2)