Spark and Spitfire

The Loved Ones

The Loved Ones

Sometimes the wisdom of a simple 13-line poem provides the healing you need at the moment.

My First Glimpse of Beauty

My First Glimpse of Beauty

In my exploration of how I came to discover beauty, I landed on ONE undeniable truth.

First-Grade Beauty

First-Grade Beauty

What were — if any — the artistic consequences of surgery to straighten my crooked eye when I was in First Grade?

Kindergarten Beauty

Kindergarten Beauty

Art isn’t about drawing. It’s about learning to see. But what kind of art do you create as a child when you can’t see straight?

So much beauty. So little time.

So much beauty. So little time.

Keats wrote that a thing of beauty is a joy forever. But when does someone begin to recognize a thing as “beauty”?

When A Great Tree Falls

When A Great Tree Falls

To passersby it no doubt was not a great tree, but for me, it was a great signpost, perhaps even a lodestar.

Ignite — 10/31/25

Ignite — 10/31/25

This year on Halloween, is there ANY way that law enforcement can be funny rather than scary?