An Anniversary

I missed my one year blogging anniversary! =)  It was two weeks ago... February 1, 2011.  No big hairy deal really... until I realized how much the last year has meant to me... and that ... is a big hairy deal... for me.  I've come through the valley of the shadow of death, and I was not alone in there.  His pen and my "paper" were my therapy.  Isn't that the story for so many of us?

The best part about blogging, without question, was meeting you all right here.  Like most mothers, mine always told me "never talk to strangers,"... but she never said anything about writing to them.  I was amazed by the photography of the first woman who commented on something I wrote.  She seemed harmless enough.  So, I kept posting.  Then there was this guy who said things like "nice poem, Patricia" and that was super encouraging to me.  He looked harmless enough.   So, I kept writing.  There was a poetry community that was so much fun and a bit edgy ... they lit a fire under me... a place where we could all warm our hands over an open fire of poetry (well, not my poetry... but, you know.)


A year ago, I would have told you that I just needed a place to put my thoughts down, tell a story, record my poetry, or a good photograph.  I certainly wasn't going to sing, join a poetry community or write something in a character other than myself... that would be silly.  I guess I just thought I should finally make good on a promise I had made to my sister in law who had recently died from brain cancer.  She wanted me to let others see what I wrote. That seemed kind of dumb to me... but a promise is a promise.  I don't have grand writing ambitions, (other than to get my monarch butterfly photo journal published.)  I'll probably self publish that someday when I have some extra cash lying around.   I won't quit my day job.

A year ago, I would have told you that I had all the friends I needed and that I would have NEVER been taken in by an online ministry or paid good money to fly to Texas to participate in one of their retreats, room with a stranger, (who wasn't strange at all) or worse... read my poetry to a room full of them.

Top L-R:  Sarah Masen, Pat Spreng, guy from Christianity Today,
Marcus Goodyear
Bottom L-R:  Sandra Heska King, Julia Kasdorf, Linda Chontos, Julia ?

A year ago, I wouldn't have known I would take a canoe by myself up a strange river, or walk downstream to find hundreds of monarch butterflies. 

A year ago, I was just coming up for air.  Still grieving the loss of my loved ones and experiencing the difficulties of my husband's brain surgery.  At the retreat, I was happy to stay behind my camera... looking for nature, not people.  No one knew me, and that was good.


But, you all were there ... and, well, sort of in my way. 

I kept running into your
beautiful words ...

and colors ...

your laughter, your kindness, 

a pho feast of hospitality...

as plentiful and beautiful as the butterflies themselves.  The presence of God in many forms. 

Lyla Lindquist, Anne Kroeker, Jennifer Dukes Lee, Sandra Heska King,
L.L. Barkat, Nancy Franson, Sam VanEman, Claire Burge
Tina Miller Howard, David Rupert, Cheryl Hyatt Smith

Someone was very honest while breaking bread, making  communion within a growing community so, well... communal. 


Great is His faithfulness.

Oh God my Father.

A lot can happen in one year. 


That's a big hairy deal.



Thank you from the bottom of my ink well...




Patricia Spreng