This Our Joyful Hymn of Praise

(Watercolor study of the Snowy Range, WY)

This is where I stood in July...on the trail up Medicine Bow Peak in southern Wyoming.  It was a great gift to me to travel with my brother Robert and my niece Noelle out to Wyoming to meet up with two of my sons, Joe and Elijah, to climb Medicine Bow.  This peak has been a family favorite for several generations now.  My dad first took us up to the top when I was in high school, and a number of us have been back to make the ascent through the years.  

(With my two sons Joe and Elijah and Elijah's dog, Lucy)

I am thankful for the health to climb, for the upbringing that started in me an appreciation for the outdoors, but most of all for the God who created this beautiful world.  This Thanksgiving holiday is a great time to reflect on our lives and what we value and treasure most...like family and friends and freedom.  May you enjoy some moments for that process!  Happy Thanksgiving to you all!!  Here's a wonderful hymn composed by John Rutter called "For the Beauty of the Earth" to help you express your thanks:

                                            

Snow geese in migration near Lynden, WA

(Canada geese sketches)

I continue to enjoy watching the skies for migrating geese heading south for winter.  Here is a poem by my great uncle, Elroy Roffe of Toronto, Canada:

Summer's Farewell

The blue of sky is flecked with clouds

And on a distant hill

There stand some trees like waiting crowds,

For either good or ill.

The sun looks down upon mankind,

A breeze blows fitfully

And fallen leaves rise like a blind

Then sink in misery.

Then on the air a sound is heard

It is a farewell cry

That comes from many and many a bird

As they go passing by.

They know, if we perchance forget

That winter's on its way

And so without a vain regret

Alone we're left till May.

Full soon the air will fill with snow

For children what a sight

And we into our homes will go

Good bye then, and good night.

---F. W. Elroy Roffe.

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Migrant

(Small watercolor study of Snow Goose in flight)

As the world reels from the latest terrorist tragedy in Paris, and our own country is in the grips of a major illegal immigration issue, another migration has been occurring across national boundaries. The major flyway "interstates" of the world have seen thousands of birds en route on their annual return south for the winter.

Just outside my patio doors I have enjoyed watching a flock of Snow Geese land in the early morning to recharge in this corn field on their way from Alaska to southern destinations.  I keep my field glasses by the door in order to observe their behavior, landings, and take-offs.  

This past Sunday the Jansen Art Center here in Lynden, WA held a concert by some tremendously talented young people.  I found it personally inspiring and challenging!  From a young 11 year old red-haired boy who took over the piano keyboard with great sensitivity to a young college cellist whose fingers were like rubber all over the strings to an energizing 9-member college jazz combo, I saw something very different being offered the world compared to what happened in Paris last week.  These young people have diligently committed hours and hours of study and practice to what is good and noble and brings joy to the world.  What they have chosen to focus on is life-giving and renewing to humankind! It reminded me that encouraging young people in their noble endeavors and hopes is a very important, worthy investment of my life!  Here is a video of a young rancher boy out in Utah who is making good choices with his life that will amaze you.

                                     

Encourage young people to develop the gifts and abilities they contain in seed form.  You never know where it will lead.  But one thing is for certain....the Arts have a way of bringing healing to the world, and it is especially powerful when done by young people!

Here is another set of two young men who are choosing to bring beauty to the world instead of destruction:  

                                   

And finally, I have completed a commission work for a client from Omaha, NE.  It is of Bishop Marty Chapel at Mount Marty College in Yankton, South Dakota:

Bishop Marty Chapel

8" x 10 1/2"

Graphite

Live bravely and beautifully!

Change Is Coming

(Watercolor study of a maple leaf)

If you haven't noticed the brilliant colors of nature this past month, then you are either blind or in the desert somewhere.  Beauty beckons you to behold every golden aspen or brilliant red maple in the neighborhood or countryside.  Springtime is beautiful but then comes autumn and the knockout display really ramps up the show. In keeping with the leaf theme, let me share a song with you by pianist Yuhki Kuramoto titled Sonnet in the Woods:

Fall brings with it the those seasonal changes that we make adjustments to such as cooler temps, leaves changing to brilliant colors, then falling, warmer wardrobe choices, and setting our clocks back.  Some of these changes we welcome and enjoy, while others can be a nuisance or undesirable.  Just like the larger setting of life! Life is never static, but constantly changing.  We grow older, our kids grow up, our jobs change, we move, people die.  Babies are born. Health issues arise.  Finances fluctuate.  

How does one position one's self to successfully navigate change? Certainly there are aspects of change that bring joy and interesting new options.  We welcome variety! Sometimes change creates difficulties, pain, discouragement, and loss.  We can choose to push through and be valiant, seeking to learn from change and grow in character.  

One thing that never changes and is always a constant is the faithful love of God.  Psalm 136 writes over and over again that the faithful love of the Lord endures forever.  We can count on that like an anchor for our souls in the middle of change, the chaos in the world, and the stresses of daily life.  God is in control of history and our personal histories.  I like how Frederick Buechner wrote:  God acts in history and in your and my brief histories not as the puppeteer who sets the scene and works the strings but rather as the great director who no matter what role fate casts us in conveys to us somehow from the wings, if we have our eyes, ears, hearts open and sometimes even if we don't, how we can play those roles in a way to enrich and ennoble and hallow the whole vast drama of things including our own small but crucial parts in it.  (emphasis mine)

(watercolor study of Sandhill Crane migration- Platte River)

Something Told the Wild Geese

Something told the wild geese

It was time to go.

Though the fields lay golden,

Something whispered---"Snow."

Leaves were green and stirring,

Berries, luster-glossed,

But beneath warm feathers,

Something cautioned---"Frost."

All the sagging orchards

Steamed with amber spice,

But each wild breast stiffened

At remembered ice.

Something told the wild geese

It was time to fly---

Summer sun was on their wings,

Winter in their cry.

---Rachel Field.

Live bravely and beautifully!