"The meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away."

-Pablo Picasso

"People who keep at their callings for a lifetime are always people who suffer. The world is too hard and life is too broken for it to be otherwise." Steve Garber

We spent last weekend in the desert with family celebrating some good things. The trip was a much needed break for me as there has been a lot swirling back here at home.

Ultimately the extremes in the desert and the need for water and relief reminded me how I long for glimpses of something beautiful in this life...

I do love the desert light.

As long as I can remember, I've loved and been taught to care about beauty. Obviously you know I'm a painter, but the longer I live I feel that my gift might be equally in seeing and bringing dignity and value to the beauty other people bring to this life: especially those artists, songwriters, makers, visionaries, and risk-takers who are bringing glimpses of beauty that remind us there's a better day coming...

Those glimpse of hope that help my heart hold on in this broken world.

I've found how much I NEED YOU... How much I want to fight for you... How much I want to champion your process and want to know your story: how much you matter. I want you to know the risk is worth it, both for me and also for those who long for beauty all around us.

I'm drawn to beauty because my own soul desperately needs to drink in reminders of the goodness of God...

In the last years I've come to see my personal deep need to be NEAR beauty and to fight for the hearts of those who create it, a side of me you may not know.

This passion/calling consumes me at times--maybe this "gift" is a little selfish, but I believe God cares deeply for the creative heart... this is the lense through which I see and process as I think about life and hope and restoration.

The question is: "HOW DO I GIVE THIS GIFT AWAY?"

The answer seems to be InSpero.org

Beauty heals. Beauty stirs hope.

I'm not naive enough to think that other people view life this way. Over the last few years I've learned the hard way that it is painful but okay to be misunderstood. It is painful but okay to fight for something other people don't value or even see. It is painful but okay to look foolish, especially for love's sake.

As we waited in the airport for our return flight, there was a man playing the most beautiful music. I was quite drawn to him and found a place on the floor to settle in near him and sat with our kids: drinking in the complex melodies and allowing my heart and soul to be nurtured by the music of a stranger.

(Thank you strange guitar man :))

As I savored his music, I was receiving texts from a friend walking in deep darkness... my heart was simultaneously breaking and being healed.

Such as it is most every day: brokenness and beauty at work...

i have this vision that beauty is going to be a part of the healing of my soul, but THERE IS ALSO A BIGGER STORY:

I BELIEVE BEAUTY IS PART OF THE HEALING OF THE SOUL OF BIRMINGHAM.

The best way I know to give this gift away is to invite you to be a part of the vision and STORY of InSpero.

JOIN US - WE NEED YOU!