spiritual journey

Summer Will Come

My beloved Grandma, otherwise known as Gigi, always used to say, “This too shall pass.” Far more than a cliché to her, the phrase allowed her to laugh in the face of life's tragedies. Her Irish merriment, sprinkled liberally through the years, seasons me still. It broke her heart to send her husband off to…Read more Summer Will Come

A Prayer for My Country

Here in Colorado, I breathe thick orange haze of Western wildfires, even as Texans stumble through water-logged debris, and evacuees flee Florida. With all its warts and weaknesses, America is the country I love. Generations of my family fought for the freedoms I cherish today. I've traveled the world and witnessed first-hand the alternatives to…Read more A Prayer for My Country

Shattering Into Light

Here, taunting dark, questions stab, backwards bend. Shutting down, like sifting sands closing in. Tender, firm command: “Ask.” Gentle touch: Unanswerable questions, open wounds. Eyes downcast, hesitant, unable to hold this claustrophobic space anymore, I ask. “Now, listen.” There, in quiet circle of sentinel trees, I hear: not a mighty wind, not an audible voice,…Read more Shattering Into Light

How Great is our God – Kenya Connection Team 2017

They were just exploring the wonders of being in a family, home less than a year. Some were learning to use utensils for the first time, riding in cars for the first time, trying to figure out why it was “raining” in the house and their new parents wanted them to stand in the “rain.”…Read more How Great is our God – Kenya Connection Team 2017

Finding the Way to Nowhere (in Kenya)

Bounce and jostle over potholes and dusty ruts to the middle of nowhere. Second-guess a few times if you've lost your way. Double check with someone on the side of the road. Spot the turn-off at last and park your car. Hop out and glance to the right; and, shocked to discover it here in…Read more Finding the Way to Nowhere (in Kenya)

In the Cracks

Astonished, I found Him, the Beautiful One, deep in a cranny of Mathare Valley, Kenya - the same One I glimpsed in the fissure of a Mother Teresa's home in Huruma, as I share below. It's enough to make my head spin - apparently, at least according to what my senses report, my body landed…Read more In the Cracks

Believing What I Can’t See

Many times for me, painting is a language I speak to myself – to affirm what I know to be true and thus to persuade my own heart to believe. The physical world around me, in a similar way, constantly whispers metaphors to me concerning spiritual truths. In this painting, for example, I wrestle with Newton's third law…Read more Believing What I Can’t See

Can Art Change the World?

  In my travels around the world, I've witnessed excruciating suffering and pain. When I see a baby dying in Mathare Valley slum of Nairobi, Kenya for lack of a $20 medication, I don't think about painting a picture. I just need to get the money to the child's parents so she can see a…Read more Can Art Change the World?

Tommy John at 16?

The craziest thing happened recently. The roots of the story go all the way back to when my son was just a baby. He nipped at the heels of his three-years-older brother, as obsessed (or more) with anything round. If it could be picked up and thrown, they would find it; and it would fly.…Read more Tommy John at 16?

Dandelion

Do I truly believe... when the sacred center shatters, when hope is flung like dandelion parachutes into frigid wind, when all presses down into winter sleep when all is lost... Do I truly believe... when only the hollow stalk remains, unloved, dry, cracking.. it is not the end of the story? Could it be my…Read more Dandelion