On Thursday, toward the end of our group’s 2021 bike ride, Mick and I rode from Grass Valley in the west side of the Sierras to his daughter and son-in-law’s house in Susanville, on the east side. Friday was a family birthday celebration, so that day I took off on a solo ride north on Hwy 139 past Eagle Lake to Alturas and then south on Hwy 395 back to Susanville. That ride provided 135 miles of joy. I left the music off to focus on enjoying the scenery: majestic mountains and lush grassy meadows and high desert, good-sized lakes and dry creek beds. Ponderosa pines and aspen and cedar and pinon pines. Deer and cattle and eagles and hawks and juncos and who knows what else. I apologize for…
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painting by Leilani Strong Smith
Mix It Up
Leilani Strong Smith, a very good friend, writer, artist, and educator recently put this painting and text on her blog “Godhead Here in Hiding.”
“Most of the oil paints I use are made from minerals that give the paints its characteristic colors. The child-like thrill I feel when I squeeze the paint from the tube onto the palette is visceral. But my highest joy comes from mixing the bold colors together. I can dull the color or brighten a color, depending on what paints I mix. From the mixing of any two colors many more colors can be made! Sometimes I am surprised by the color produced, and sometimes I can predict what colors will be created.
When I paint, I am reminded that God does not want a mixing of…
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image from stevenaitchison.co.uk
What Child is This: A Reconciler
Christmas “split time” in a sense—we date our years from Jesus’ birth. It sparked a worldwide faith. At the core of those changes, we find a Jesus who entered the world to be a reconciler. To bring often radically people together. That had to begin with…
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