2016: Grow or Die!

Watercolor study of the Two Sisters

(Northwest Cascades)

What passes through your mind as you stand on the verge of a new year?  Are you the type that makes New Year's resolutions?  Or are you fairly nonchalant about life and take things as they come?  Many of us take time at this annual milestone to reflect over the past year and to renew our focus for the coming year.  I like to pick a word that encapsulates what I would like to do in the coming year.  Its brevity helps to remind me over the months to come what actions I need to be executing in order to stay on course.  So the word GROW has weighed in as the word of the year for me.  Let me break that down so you can see how it works for me.  

Here's my art studio supervisor Michelangelo showing our focus.  He wants to point out that if we are not growing, we are dying.  As a living organism our bodies are always growing new cells to replace what is worn or damaged.  As a living soul we humans need to be growing in our persons as well.  If we want to avoid stagnation or loss of inner life and productivity, we need to be seeing to it that we are nurturing our souls and being open to opportunities for growth.  Here are five ways to use the word GROW as an acronym to develop some areas for growth:

Growth takes time.  Patience and marathon endurance need to be the mode for growing. So often we start out with the best of intentions and jump in with huge resolve only to peter out in the coming weeks.  But start small and keep it simple.  Former Nebraska football coach Tom Osborne had a phrase that I find helps to keep me encouraged. That phrase was "Keep the chains moving forward!"  In football they use chains to measure in determining if a team is gaining ground.  I use that motto as a reminder to keep in the chase towards my goals.

Here I'm not referring so much to physical weight loss, although that could be a part of one's personal growth goal this year.  What I think of is what Paul says in Hebrews 12 about getting rid of the weight that so easily slows us down in our life race.  What makes it hard to progress and isn't necessary to our lives, but we allow it?  Is it fear?  Worry?  Laziness? Pride?  It is something we allow and because of that, we can also choose to deny it's access to our thinking.  Perhaps this year we can begin to eliminate that from our thought process.

Here I have in mind things that are detracting us from our main goals.  For many of us in this digital age, it could be the Internet and how it robs us of time better spent on keeping the chains in forward motion.  That's a hard one, for sure!  I struggle with that.  Other people and activities that pull us away from what is best could also be a distraction.  Life is too short to waste the moments we are given.  It requires good time stewardship!

Growth as a person results in outward thinking towards others.  As we grow in our persons, abilities, and resources, we are better able to affect other's lives for the good.  We can make a difference and leave the world a better place for our having loved and given of ourselves.

We need to keep expanding our horizons and be open to experiences that stretch us, taking us out of our comfort zones.  We grow as we learn to "think outside the box".  We grow as we meet difficulties and challenges with innovative approaches.  Keep learning new things. Study hard. Fear stagnation in your life!  Enrich your soul so that you in turn can enrich others.  This is what I want to do in 2016....I want to GROW!

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Place Where God Was Homeless

The Gift of Christmas

The House of Christmas

A Child in a foul stable,

Where the beasts feed and foam;

Only where He was homeless

Are you and I at home;

We have hands that fashion and heads that know,

But our hearts we lost---how long ago!

In a place no chart nor ship can show

Under the sky's dome.

To an open house in the evening

Home shall men come,

To an older place than Eden

And a taller town than Rome.

To the end of the way of the wandering star,

To the things that cannot be and that are,

To the place where God was homeless

And all men are at home.

---G.K. Chesterton.

In The Bleak Mid-Winter

In the bleak mid-winter

Frosty wind made moan,

Earth stood hard as iron,

Water like a stone;

Snow had fallen, snow on snow,

Snow on snow,

In the bleak mid-winter

Long ago.

Our God, Heaven cannot hold Him

Nor earth sustain;

Heaven and earth shall flee away

When He comes to reign:

In the bleak mid-winter

A stable-place sufficed

The Lord God Almighty

Jesus Christ.

Enough for Him, whom cherubim

Worship night and day,

A breastful of milk

And a mangerful of hay;

Enough for HIm, whom angels

Fall down before,

The ox and ass and camel

Which adore.

---Christina Rossetti.

Here's the wonderful Christmas carol, O Come, O Come Emmanuel, expressing the great longing of Advent performed by The Piano Guys in a beautiful rendering:

My art helper Michelangelo is settled in for his winter nap, but I'll pass on his greetings with mine to you all ...wishing you a very, merry Christmas!!!

Live bravely and beautifully!

The Christmas Murder

As we decorate our homes for Christmas, hanging up lights, and setting up nativity scenes, our minds often rove over the territory of former Christmases.  So many of them merge in my mind's eye into cherished times of family togetherness, plum pudding, thousand piece puzzles, skating by moonlight, and delight in gifts given or received.  

But woven in and out through the warp and woof of the years stands a Christmas memory here and there, like a stranger out in the darkness looking in at Christmas Joy.  Zooming in on those various strangers in the dark, I found that each had its own distinctive pain, longing, or disappointment.

One such dark stranger lurking in my mind's memory was "The Christmas Murder".  I was a young adolescent that particular Christmas but learning that the world wasn't all like a Currier and Ives' drawing.  How was I to handle the news of the murder on the Platte River that one wintry Wyoming December?

North Platte River near Douglas, WY

She was the niece of a missionary doctor my family knew well.  They lived in our area of Wyoming.  She was in high school, attractive, full of life and anticipation.  But on one fatal morning in December, she was found face-down in the icy flow of the North Platte River well out of town.  It was obvious foul play.  Instead of peace on earth for a small Wyoming community, it was the pale of death cast around the edges of holiday gatherings.  To this day, her death remains one of Wyoming's unsolved mysteries.  

North Platte River near Douglas, WY

Wow, her death hit me like a thunderbolt.  I had just recently been in her home a few weeks before this tragedy.  So many aspects of it needed to be mulled over.  Pondered.  Here I was, preparing to celebrate the birth of the Son of God.  Now, disrupting life to the core, I found myself grieving the death of one of His innocent creatures.  

This tragedy propelled the brevity and vulnerability of life to the forefront of my life.  It nurtured a new longing, a yearning for a place where only goodness dwells.  Where all is total peace and joy and love.  And down through the years, as the pages of Christmas after Christmas are turned, the events of life have continued to feed that longing with intensity!

Now I realize with greater appreciation what Christmas is all about. The truth is that peace and joy and love have pierced our dark world with the blazing light of the Son of God.  All the tangled and torn threads of this earthly existence are destined for resolution.  All the questions.  All the "why's".  There will be eventual dispelling of the mysteries.  The fact is that the greatest Christmas celebration still lies ahead.  All that was intended for our rescue from darkness and sin, for our adoption into God's family through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, will be fully and joyously realized then!!  The wraps will be all off!!  We'll be Home for the Holy Days!  At last!!!

Live bravely and beautifully!

Terror in Mr. Roger's Neighborhood

(Small watercolor study of Griffin)

The news keeps pouring in with reports of the latest tragedy and loss of human lives.  It seems like a weekly occurrence of late.  It has happened across the ocean in Paris recently and now in our own back yard this week.  We live with increased uncertainty and concern about our daily public activities.  This is the world we now live in with growing terrorism.  It is not the kind, gentle world of a Mr. Roger's Neighborhood where we are living well together in that neighborhood. 

This is also the beginning of the Advent season in which we prepare for the celebration of the first coming of Christ some 2,000 years ago in the Middle East.  My pastor reminded us again Sunday that Advent is about two issues......lamenting and longing.  We lament the evil in this world and in our own lives as a result of the Fall.  We long for rescue and redemption from the evil and to be forever enjoying life with Christ when He returns again bringing true freedom, beauty, and goodness.  No government anywhere in the world can bring about the true peace that humanity is craving.  Christ is the Prince of Peace!

This weekend I look forward to enjoying another season performance of Handel's The Messiah.  It speaks to the evil condition in which we live and portrays beautifully through the art of music the remedy to the human condition.  

As you go about your day, remember to love deeply and live life wide open to what is good and beautiful.  Serve and encourage others. Leave a legacy of goodness in the wake of your life.  You never know when it could be your last, so make it your best!  Be courageous in the face of fear.

Live bravely and beautifully!

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!