grief

Art As Sacred Exchange

In the last ten days, hell-flames burned near; but hope-fire blazed ever more real. At times I felt trampled, like grass in a flood:  soggy and mud clogged, bent under raging billows. Sometimes I felt like a tree surviving a winter storm, battered but proud, lifting weathered defiant arms in worship. Many times Elijah’s birds…Read more Art As Sacred Exchange

Courage Not My Own

Someone I dearly love is battling acute mental illness. I am scared, I am overwhelmed. My heart breaks for the one I love. I am trying to be brave. I turn to the One who knows, who keeps track:  of my every tossing through the night, of every wandering of the one I love. I…Read more Courage Not My Own

Blaze

  A long time ago, I stumbled on a meandering meadow path. Vibrant wildflowers exploded, vibrating with hum of bees and butterfly flutter. The promise of joy lured me into the broad expanse. But within a few steps, dark clouds gathered and a mighty wind whipped grasses across my legs. Ominous thunder rumbled. Waves of…Read more Blaze

Rooted in Light

The road from courage and hope, to utter despair, and then finally to exhilaration stretched through wild lands in 2005. With the daughter we longed to adopt buried in a third-world orphanage and silence from the Kenyan lawyer who should be inviting us to come and claim her, I could no longer bear the separation.…Read more Rooted in Light

Prophetic Art

“Art is the language of the soul.” With these words, one of my lifelong friends exhorted me as I wrestled for years with an insatiable need to express myself visually. For decades I tried to suppress this language, feeling it could not urgently or adequately address the evils I witnessed in the world. It felt…Read more Prophetic Art

Silence

There was a time in my life when I was stunned into silence. I unexpectedly received news of harm done to someone I love, two days later met the person who caused the harm face-to-face, and then several days after that received medical confirmation for my loved one of resulting lifelong disability. It was too much,…Read more Silence

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

The Sky Begins to Dance

mountains ramble into mesas, stepping down to plains, kinked succulents, anchored, release the blinding light of day, reach for pooling pink and orange settle into quiet sleepy soil while the sky begins to dance here, our silvery trail of tears, lament for heavy feet, mooring us to earth there, their finished race - flames the…Read more The Sky Begins to Dance

Longing for Home

Blue shadows fall on barren fields where once we roamed heart-to-heart. Now clouds hinge on sinister skies. Grass, tattered earth, flaps like threadbare laundry. Cold and exposed, I drift alone. A weathered fence guides me, hand-over-hand. Nothing tied down, everything shifts in ochre waves. How can I feel trapped in a place so vast? Bare…Read more Longing for Home

Learning from a talented photographer

One of my great joys in joining the blogging community is connecting with talented artists all over the world. I enjoy following the blog of Otto von Munchow, a photographer and workshop teacher based out of Norway and Seattle. I learn a great deal from him, especially from his very generous offer to critique photos…Read more Learning from a talented photographer