painting

What is it that stimulates your thinking and causes your spirit to soar?  Being close to nature does it for me! This past weekend my husband and I attended the annual retreat for all ages, held at Mo Ranch in Hunt, TX and  led by University Presbyterian Church in Austin, TX. 

Today, I’m hearing voices in my head!  One of them is telling me to get busy on my new ‘Blog Triage’ class assignment from Cynthia Morris and Alyson Stanfield:  write a topical post three different times, each to a different type of person in our lives, or even

Today, the online ‘blog doctors’, Alyson Stanfield and Cynthia Morris, have challenged the class to re-write the previous blog entry (detailing its target readers) using the second-person pronouns instead of the first-person pronouns!  What a challenge to write to you

I woke up this morning to a cat sitting on my back casually grooming her nails.  She only weighs eight pounds, so she is not very noticeable unless she pounces or jumps on me for some reason.  Quietly climbing onboard is a subtle change in my environment and is only somewhat

This is a small painting of a place in the Hill Country of central Texas that brings joyful memories to many people.  The place is Mo Ranch, which has been a camp and retreat center for the Presbyterian Church since the 1940’s.  A fellow Presbyterian  asked me to paint one

I painted the top of this old end table just for fun- I didn’t have any underlying theme, except to make a feeling of pattern and deep space on the top of a table.  But, it turned out to look like scattered puzzle pieces of the sort that are to be put together into a

The other day my friend told me about an incident witnessed by two people, one of whom saw meaning in the event, and the other of whom apparently found only an odd occurrence.   A groomsman had fainted at his brother’s wedding.  The question: was this caused by a virus and

When I was very young I thought that what I saw today would be available for me to see tomorrow and next year and always.  I thought that the people I loved would be there tomorrow and next year and always.  I thought that the things I learned about the world would be permanently

A writer friend sent me a description of what happened when the world-class violinist, Joshua Bell, played with open violin case in a Washington, D C. metro station a couple of years ago.  He was playing Bach for solo violin, compositions unmatched for emotional and intellectual

Richard Ryan, a professor of psychology, psychiatry and education at the University of Rochester, says, “We’ve found nature brings out more social feelings, more value for community and close relationships. People are more caring when they’re around nature.”  – a quote from