we wander moonlit cornfields in and out of shadows of living growing things taunting what we leave behind there is room to breathe here between the stalks in the stalks everything is breathing here and there is something large here larger than these fields flowing out in contoured rows so simple…Read more Room to Breathe
nature
Summer Will Come
Ok, I’ll admit it. I’m enamored with a single dying weed. So far, it has inspired five paintings in as many months! Click the following links to view the paintings in their original blog entries: (left to right) Songs in the Valley, Reach, Always, Loving You Still. There’s something about it – the pathos as it…Read more Summer Will Come
Touch the Sky – Tree Parables
When my soul is lost and storm-tossed, there is a sacred space I love to go and pray. Amidst towering pines in the heart of Black Forest, I trace a pine needle-carpeted labyrinth to the center. Scent of sap and earth, breezes sifting treetops, glaze of sun on my face, peace settles silky like layers…Read more Touch the Sky – Tree Parables
Go Deep – Progression of a Piece
Lately I've been digging into the past. It's almost like the last decade or so rolled over me too fast, like a crashing wave with my heart flailing in the tide. Seaweed and treasure alike tumbled by, and I landed on the shore dazed. Now, I find myself filtering through the debris, trying to make sense of it…Read more Go Deep – Progression of a Piece
Loving You Still
His laughter crackled like a campfire, trickled over dappled streams, whispered in aspen groves, twirled through mountain meadows, reverberated from ridge to ridge. His whole life, he laughed. His eyes twinkled when he laughed with me, as if he delighted in some secret wildflower field in my spirit I had yet to discover. Memories of those dancing eyes…Read more Loving You Still
Always – lament for a father taken too soon
On a balmy October afternoon, we gathered on a green slope saturated with sinking-sun amber light. Sentinel trees swayed in a swan dance of brilliant-hued Autumn. We clustered amidst names engraved in stone, contemplating the eternal promise of Scripture, swelling with tears to the last lingering notes of Amazing Grace. Each of us clutched a…Read more Always – lament for a father taken too soon
Reach
“You only get just one time around, you only get one shot at this, one chance to find out the one thing that you don’t want to miss.” One Life to Love by 33 Miles This song lyric often plays in my mind. Life on this earth tumbles by and falls off the final cliff…Read more Reach
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
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
Colleen Briggs Images & Writing 