Vietnam – So Much More Than a War

The tank squats low and heavy in the middle of the city at the center of a roundabout, a giant hunk of refuse. Dark, cold metal, it absorbs the tropical light like a black hole. Afforded monument status, it reveals a past seemingly out of congruence with the idyllic mountain town facade, an ugly scar…Read more Vietnam – So Much More Than a War

Vietnam, fires, and Christmas…

Vietnam, fires, and Christmas.... my excuses for disappearing from the blogging world since late October! (Lots more dramatic than saying my dog ate my rough drafts... although that could happen.) Vietnam: Still can't believe I got to do this - absolutely amazing trip to Vietnam with a Hope's Promise Connection Team in early November. We witnessed the…Read more Vietnam, fires, and Christmas…

A Longing Fulfilled (Return to Vietnam)

In 2015, on a snowy morning in Colorado, memories of Vietnam (blog entry: Longing for Courage) danced in my head. Ironic, on the eve of a longing fulfilled, ticket in-hand to depart for Vietnam tomorrow, snow once again paints white the Colorado landscape outside my window. In 2015, still buried in the crux of crisis involving…Read more A Longing Fulfilled (Return to Vietnam)

Shattering Into Joy

When I brought him home five years ago, I was broken too. His leg had betrayed him, shattering mid-stride when the thrill of the race outpaced his physical capability. His passion had disintegrated into pieces. I, too, scrambled to collect the shards of a dream. Hope for someone I dearly love had collided with her…Read more Shattering Into Joy

Racing for Joy

That moment when you run… not because someone told you to, not for any tangible benefit, not to prove anything to anyone (not even yourself). But simply for the sheer joy of surging through the grass, under the sky, alive in this moment. When every cell of your being trembles with the present. When you…Read more Racing for Joy

Of Loss and Hope

  The grief, the loss of what she had hoped for, lapped as relentlessly, as inevitably, as the breakers crashing again and again—minute after minute, day after day. Repeating their reach and retreat for millennia. Tumbling like so much seaweed, all of what-almost-was washed ashore, only to be drug back out again. Over and over.…Read more Of Loss and Hope

One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples

I wrote this entry for the Hope's Promise blog about my dear friends, Brian and Debbie Lee. Decades ago, when I was a twenty-something campus staffworker with InterVarsity, they were leading teams of students to serve in Kenya. One summer they brought back necklace gifts with little hand-carved bone pendants for all the staff. As…Read more One Pebble… Thousands of Ripples

The Deaf Dog Who Heard What Matters

Strange that I would start painting again, after falling off into deep discouragement earlier this year, with Henry as my subject. But Henry was truly special. He was completely deaf.  In a household clattering with four active kids, that was a blessing for him. And in a family with special needs kids, his disability endeared…Read more The Deaf Dog Who Heard What Matters

Sheer Gift – the Power of Art

The expectation of spending time with a dear friend and a mission of creativity already promised a portal to magic. Then we stepped inside Jives Coffee Shop in Old Colorado City to the strains of a violin and the glow of warm, golden wood. And I was transported into sheer gift. Nine am on a…Read more Sheer Gift – the Power of Art