Five Minute Friday :: Beginning

• Five Minute Friday :: Beginning Linkup

Have you heard the phrase, "every ending also is a beginning?" It would take eons to scroll through the years of your life and show how sometimes that was true, other times it was a loud false because a particular ending marked the conclusion of…? A pain-filled situation you couldn't wait to be rid of, or a glorious phase filled with achievement, support, and wonder. Some endings make space for new beginnings that otherwise couldn't be; other endings mean emptiness and heartbreak.

Like too many in this economy, I tell people I'm "between lives," meaning I consider myself in a transitional time between an established routine of employment, housing, and connections and (ideally) some of the same in the future. Most of us "between lives" people are working at other than our ideal job or the career we thought we were preparing for. Most of us probably are in temporary style housing and not in a place with a mortgage or a long-term lease, unless someone else holds the mortgage or the lease and we're renting from them.

I wrote that introduction because all of us between lives people can't stay there forever, although I'll admit it has a degree of comfort. Unsettled yet comfortable? Mostly because of meeting and commiserating with many many many others who truly get it.

How. Some. Ever. We need to figure out what it will take and how we will get to a serious new beginning. That new start probably will entail ending aspects of between-ness, so in that case, a particular ending is essential for a beginning.

The end of between lives may be a little bit bitter with a touch of sweetness. Have I ever mentioned how much I love the thrill of the chase? That I do, but this one has gotten very old. I'm ready to settle, not for less than I need or deserve—I'm ready to settle down again. The end of "between lives" had better make room for an excellent new beginning.

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Morning Has Broken

City Resist

Morning

Beach Speak

Earth Day 2026 :: Our Power • Our Planet

Earth Day 2026 • Our Power • Our Planet

• suntreeriver design

Five Minute Friday :: Harmony

Music from the Fifth Evangelist :: Johann Sebastian Bach.
Summer worship bulletin cover featuring Ben Shahn's portrait of Bach

• Five Minute Friday :: Harmony Linkup

Sometimes we describe something by saying what it's not. Or is apophatic only a theological thing? Assuming the concept applies outside the realm of theology, does that mean harmony isn't dissonance?

Discussions of harmony may be quintessentially about music, but harmony and dissonance also are major components of all kinds of design and many aspects of design—maybe especially color. My color theory instructor mentioned red, yellow, and blue "always go well together." Does that mean they can't be done badly? No. But it does mean a skilled artist can tweak a RYB palette so the colors harmonize.

Harmonious and inharmonious relate to the wide range of human relationships, as well. You can take a cue from art and design as you rejoice in variety of many kinds that sometimes complement, sometimes add interest and spice, occasionally clash so much you need to ask how can this harmonize? Or can it?

Everyday life in general, too. As you've probably learned, experiences of discord are almost essential if we're going to appreciate and be thankful for days that unfold as we'd anticipated, events that transpire according to plan. Last Friday, the date of this linkup, was the spring equinox, when it feels as if creation harmonizes with itself.

In the witness of scripture, harmony is shalom that goes far beyond irenic peace as an absence of conflict into wholeness, justice, goodness, bounty, and commonwealth.

Sixty-two versions of Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom paintings still exist. I've included one of the four on my computer in my array of footer pictures.

The wolf will dwell with the lamb,
The leopard will lie down with the young goat,
The calf and the young lion and the fatling together;
And a little boy will lead them.
Isaiah 11:6

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Five Minute Friday :: Unusual

• Five Minute Friday :: Unusual Linkup

Intro

I'll start by saying I have no idea what Kate meant about Gatlinburg Tennessee being so unusual. Long ago late in Bright Week, I spent a few days in Gatlinburg and made memories so unforgettable I still review them every so often. Those memories include a stack of randomly shaped diner pancakes smothered with butter, and the best vanilla soft serve on the planet.

I did the tourist thing over to northern North Carolina and had a lunch so wonderful the menu has become one of my standards. Gatlinburg is a gateway to Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and for sure it's been developed with tourism in mind, but so has almost every Cape Cod town, so has the Hollywood Walk of Fame, Boston's Freedom Trail, and countless attractions worldwide.


Unusual

Given that Gatlinburg isn't in my unusual category, what does belong? Although I don't consider my art and design unusual because most of it is natural to me, other people often wonder about it. Outside of the design industry and classroom, where everyone takes it in stride because they expect the creative and the unusual, real-life mixed responses have ranged from, "That's dumb" to "What are you trying to prove?" to "This is brilliant!"

One of my saddest experiences happened when a classmate who evidently didn't know me as artistic was visiting. She looked at the few dozen pieces of my original art I'd posted on the wall and asked, "Where did you get these?" I replied, "I did them" (well, yes, of course) and she said, "No you didn't! Don't lie to me."

• My header for today: January afternoon
• Top footer is my interpretation of a piece of kettle cloth
• Next one is a favorite pair of summer sandals in their original color
• A fun frog

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Five Minute Friday :: Horizon

Today's header is my Sky Horizon painting.

Welcome back, Kate! Andrew and Sylvia were excellent hosts with some super-fun prompts.


• Five Minute Friday :: Horizon Linkup

When you draw in perspective, you draw a horizon line to help accurately locate all the elements in your drawing. You know the sight and the feeling of an open road with that distant horizon you think you're getting closer to as you travel, but if the terrain is a certain way, you can approach it but you never can really really reach it. Horizons shift and change.

Downtown in the city or walking around the 'hood, you don't often get the horizon experience because there are too many objects and distractions in the way. We know about spending time in creation in order to gain perspective—besides glorying in God's incredible creation, which in itself helps us face more uncertainties, at some locations you can see the horizon and you can see forever into eternity.

What about the horizons of your life calling, your life's purpose, the horizons of the unknown? The horizons of where you are right here and right now?

I began this FMF with perspective drawing. Drawing a horizon line so you can accurately locate everything on your canvas, screen, or paper has a nice parallel when you assess your current and future life horizons and locate important elements on it. Have you ever done that in your journaling? Or in conversation with a friend, mentor, or therapist? At least for me, doing it with pencil and paper is essential.

As I focus on the future, what does today's horizon tell me? If I compare my current life horizon with a different time, maybe a different place, what do I see? Can I move the pieces around for a more pleasing perspective? How about trying this as part of your daily prayer, maybe early in the morning, or right before you (at least try to) sleep at night?

Are you getting closer to the horizon as you travel throughout each day and week? Or have your horizons shifted?

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December Menu

Gardenias Original

Gardenias Two

Gardenias One

Summer in America :: City Left Behind

• Delights USA 5

• The City As Left Behind

• Summer in America 3

Snapdragon

Five Minute Friday :; Opposite

• Five Minute Friday :: Opposite Linkup

I love how Kate's two kids who intuitively know each other so well have opposite habits and living styles.

Opposite sometimes connotes different in almost every way. Can't be reconciled. Opposing political parties. Your baseball team and mine (if they're different ones).

Hot dry days. Cold snowy nights.

My celebrate header and sprouts footer show opposites in art and design.

Opposites are essential to good design.

Light colors. Dark colors.

Tiny elements. Huge ones.

Smooth edges. Ragged edges.

Calm and dynamic colors.

Bold slab serif type. Elegant script fonts.

A call to action. A suggestion of repose.

When you combine them well, opposites join together into a splendid whole.

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Indigo Rose :: Shopping Bags

Indigo Kids :: Shopping Bags

Draw A Bird Day 2025

Thanks to social media, I remembered the annual Draw A Bird Day that happens every April 8th. This is an old birds drawing I like a lot; I'm augmenting it here with its companion fish.

Ocean Swim