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EPIPHANY SNOW
The snow arrived overnight, as promised! Just enough to change the landscape of winter on the lake in Arkansas. The trees, mountain, and grey sky are just shades of black and white. Snow changes our perception of the landscape, so it is an epiphany of its own kind. On the twelfth day of Christmas, or…
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GENERATION TO GENERATION: Unresolved Loss
The danger of unresolved grief or loss in one generation is the inheritance of the following generations. More people were killed in our Civil War than in all our other wars before or after. This loss, as well as the slow economic recovery in the south, has contributed to today’s bifurcated nation. Today we call…
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WORK IN PROGRESS: Landscape
This is on my easel right now. Last autumn on a warm and sunny day, I took an Instagram photo below of the woods near my home. Maybe we’ll have one ofthose days again, with no rain! The photo above is my most recent painting. I’m letting it set overnight, to see if I need…
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ILLUSION AND REALITY: The Uysal Clothespin Sculpture
Built for the Festival of the Five Seasons in Chaudfontaine Park, which lies on the outskirts of Liege, Belgium, a giant clothespin sculpture appears to be holding on to a mound of dirt and grass. Designed by Turkish artist Mehmet Ali Uysal, a professor of art at the Middle East Technical University, the giant sculpture…
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IRREPRESSIBLE SLEEPINESS
Irrepressible sleepiness–it comes over one at times. My night class on World Religions at seminary with Ruben Habito began with silent breathing. Centering, he called it. Some of us called it falling asleep. A long day of work or classes, or both, with a short night of sleep before an early morning wake up…
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Coming Up for Air
When I was a child, we would test ourselves at the neighborhood swimming pool. Holding our breaths, we would submerge our bodies with our eyes open. The first one of us to give out of air burst up through the surface of the shallow end of the pool. The few of us remaining below paid…
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THE MOMENT BEFORE
The moment before my daughter came into this world, my husband reminded me of the doctor’s orders: “Whatever you do, don’t push!” “Don’t tell me (horrible expletive deleted) not to push! I’ll (more expletives deleted) push if I want to! His look of shock and horror lasted only seconds before he turned for the hallway…