Hope emerges in the thick of winter, on this side of the winter solstice, when the sun starts to lengthen our daylight hours in the northern hemisphere. More light means greater visibility. More visibility means greater clarity. More clarity means greater inspiration. Even tightly closed buds on branches anticipate the bloom ahead. So what does your bloom look like in the cave of imagination when the season is still, perhaps, entrenched in a slow hibernation? … Read more

In the span of a week, two encounters of the heart: one in a doctor’s office, the other in an open space park. A bright-faced boy. A Majestic Stag. The curly head of hair sailed past me on the floor across the tile, his artificial limb extended in front of him like a baseball player sliding into second base. The boy immediately popped up on his one good leg, lifted his below-the-knee prosthesis behind him, … Read more

There’s one thing about this fall in the foothills outside Denver and the nearby higher elevations in towns like Evergreen or Conifer: leaves are holding tight to the branches in suspended shimmering animation. Snow comes late this year allowing for nature’s breathtaking mural of changing colors. And Wow! This lone aspen caught my attention among the surrounding green fir trees off a hiking trail days ago. The bright white column of bark, and the crown … Read more

I found a heart rock today on my walk. It’s something I look for whenever I’m out in the trees. And there it was . . . sunlight on the curvature of its form. Ah, what an assuring gesture from nature’s treasure trove of delightful objects. I collect these stones as signs of hope and sometimes give them away. One of my all-time favorites had a fissure down the middle. God heals the brokenhearted is … Read more

The unhealed pain of disappointment, even destruction, can leave a seemingly open wound within a person or a place. We probably all have a wound or two in our personal landscapes that come to mind. One need only walk near the burnt trails in Rocky Mountain National Park to experience the great weight of disaster that occurred in that beloved wilderness last year. The charred landscape of the Cameron Peak Fire and East Troublesome Fire … Read more

What is it about reflection that takes us back with the added grace of discernment? Time often provides the space for acquiring understanding. And understanding, after all, is one of the sweetest virtues. So we celebrate Memorial Day and we remember. We remember those who have given their lives in service to our country. We remember those who are living and make daily sacrifices in the service to others. We remember those lost and forgotten. … Read more

When was the last time you were surprised, as in taken aback with wonder or delight or a bright splash of awe? For many, it happens less frequently on the path to adulthood. What before seemed miraculous may have somehow dwindled to the mundane. Remember those days after a rainy deluge when a worm on the sidewalk brought a certain fascination? Or, the way seeds flew into the wind from a spent dandelion in the … Read more

Sometimes a place draws a person in. Perhaps an essence of calm seems to welcome you from beyond exterior doors and beckons you farther into an interior chamber. That’s the feeling I remember about the old adobe mission church in the Barrio de Analco district of Santa Fe that is considered the oldest church in the continental United States. It’s been a couple of years since that visit, but I remember with affection and mystery … Read more

I’ve been stitching thread to cloth lately instead of words to paper. It’s a diversion, a distraction, in the middle of what weighs heavy. A summer dress fashioned to get my mind off the pandemic, power outages, ice storms, unemployment, isolation. . . . On the coldest day in Denver this year, I walked into a small health food grocery to purchase a rotisserie chicken, the kind of cookery that’s been seasoned and rotated perfectly … Read more

As January nears completion, I am struck by the timbre and tone of emotions shared by so many, including myself, who struggle to navigate our unsettling times. There’s a yearning for some basic frivolity, a longing for a brightness to alight the heart. Sometimes the just right words seem to float into the just right spaces at the just right times, and that’s what happened this month as I celebrated the glorious words of two … Read more