The River of Life

I’m visiting mom tonight and we watched the movie “The Bishop’s Wife”. I think it’s dated 1947. If you haven’t seen it…it’s one of those old black and white “feel good” movies that makes you think back to your childhood days. There’s a scene where the cab driver, Sylvester, gets out and goes ice skating on a pond. Of course, he’s an excellent skater, but at first, he can’t skate at all.

Growing up, there was a creek that ran through Grandpa’s farm…a whole half mile long. I think it probably did have some deep parts in it, but for the most part…just about a foot deep. Slow moving most of the way. Would freeze like a sheet of ice in the winter. Dad would go down and shovel off the snow and our church youth group would come over for “skating” parties. Mom would always have hot chocolate and cookies for all the kids when we went back into the house to get warm. The creek was probably about a quarter mile east of where we lived. Close enough to walk….far enough away to get freezing cold on the walk home.

The creek was enveloped in huge old trees along the banks. Protected by hills on both sides, it was always warm when we were skating. Dad would build a bonfire so there was light to see….and we never skated into the dark as you just didn’t know what was there.

I was never a good skater…but I could go a distance without falling down. My dream was to skate good enough to be on TV. Well, so much for childhood dreams! I like to think I’ve transitioned that dream into my art….to be good enough to be on TV and I’ve met that goal a couple of times.

Funny how we dream one thing as a child and transition those dreams into something else as adults. Of all the dreams that I ever had, none of them were of being an artist!

But I think my sister, Colleen is the “real” artist in the family! She painted this scene which reminds me of the creek behind our house….I wrote a poem to go with it and then scrapped it.



Her painting is in the upper right hand corner. I scanned it, enlarged it, then printed it 4 times on watercolor paper. Each layer is cut a little more until the top layer is a shell....and then the 4 layers are stacked using pop dots between them. Gives a dimension that a photo just won't show, but if you look closely, I think you can see what I've done.


“The river of my life flows freely through my day
Following its path slowly along the way.
Winding between the the rocks, falling over boulders
Resting in quiet ponds, sleeping under shoulders
Not once does it go back to start the journey new
Yet it will take a turn and show a brand new view.
I believe that I know where this river ends
But I plan to enjoy all the twists and bends.
And when I reach that end, Jehovah’s hand will be
Waiting by my river and reaching out to me.”


From childhood dreams to today’s art….my life has been like a river.