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
healing
Scars That Tell of the Good Life
With the kind of radiance that hints at secret knowledge of something very deep and very good, Noyo eagerly describes the privilege he feels in serving his native country, Haiti, as a Young Life staff-worker. “Just because something is easy,” he explains, “doesn’t mean it is the best. If you do something easy, it doesn’t…Read more Scars That Tell of the Good Life
Painting a Place Beyond
I discovered this week that writing about the American/Vietnam War stirred up a torrent of scary emotions. I often “think” in feelings, not words or even images, but currents of emotional energy. After I wrote certain phrases, they tossed around in my head like a bare branch in the wind. Then, as I reflected further,…Read more Painting a Place Beyond
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)
Grappling with the American/Vietnam War Part 1 (of 2)
When I mention that I have traveled to Vietnam, I am acutely aware of still-festering wounds endured by many. Although the “Vietnam War,” as we call it in America, ended before I was old enough to comprehend the intricacies of international politics, I grew up aware of the conflicting rhetoric and high emotion that surrounded…Read more Grappling with the American/Vietnam War Part 1 (of 2)
Held
I am battered, a bereft leaf loosed in murky mayhem, kicked up by frenzied heels Of moon and wind. No mooring remains in this, last corkscrew hour before dawn. I am a burnished shadow, a swirling swan song to inky nihility. Falling. Suddenly! Madness slivered, snagged in the hem of earth’s evergreen garment, quivering on the…Read more Held
Into the Light
Dense, opaque tendrils curl, clutch me captive. I wither in the cruel confines of this grasp. When suddenly, inexplicably, the darkness reels back upon itself, cringing. Light flung like glitter, gleaming like oil on water, unveils the secret of this murky prison cell. The mystery of the darkness – myriad colors warped, bound so densely as…Read more Into the Light
Footprints of the Unseen
When fire flings its last defiant spark and torrents of leaves crackle with laughter, I wonder if you are dancing on this flaming air? Here, on this hillside of memories, where dreams are laid to rest like carpets of gleaming leaves draped over stones. I am untethered, adrift, lured to the last place you touched. You were…Read more Footprints of the Unseen
Why I Make Art
I am wired to connect with people. Although I measure about as strong on the introvert scale as possible, I am an introvert who loves people. I need to connect with others in order to thrive. For many years of my life, I felt torn between these two seemingly contradictory compulsions. I crave hours of…Read more Why I Make Art
Let It Be Me – Response to Terrorism in Kenya
Horror still clutches my heart like an apparition from beyond the grave. “It is over,” Kenyan President Kenyatta assured the world on Tuesday. Some of the perpetrators are dead. Hopefully the rest are amongst eleven people detained in a sweep of Kenya’s exit points. And yet the echoes of their evil acts reverberate long after they…Read more Let It Be Me – Response to Terrorism in Kenya
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 