The God of Art Posted: Jun 29, 2010 by Emily White Youree Strolling through the Kimbell Art Museum, I could not believe Renoir's On the Terrace—my favorite painting ever—was only two feet in front of me. I wanted to touch it, but the awareness of security guards and that sneaky alarm convinced me otherwise. Sigh—it was so beautiful and skillful and . . . . The presence of such great works of art, displaying artistic mastery I cannot comprehend, completely overwhelmed me. On loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, the Kimbell presented more than 90 masterpieces from the impressionist era. Displayed were the works of master painters Degas, Monet, Renoir, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Toulouse-Lautrec—just to name a few! The gallery not only grouped the paintings by artist, but also in a chronological manner; thus exposing the evolution of impressionism throughout the mid-nineteenth to early-twentieth centuries. To think a handful of painters, whose artistic eye challenged traditions and abounded with creativity, reinvented the art of painting and influenced culture decades later—absolutely incredible.  Read the full article…

Scraping At the Grime Posted: May 19, 2010 by Jacquelyn Spruill Recently I came down with one crazy bad virus. When I discovered my temperature was a steamy 99.5, I freaked out. It could be the swine flu, I thought to myself. I'm going to get worse in the middle of the night. I'll be throwing up and my fever will reach dangerous heights and the doctor will be closed. I'll have to go to the emergency room. But how will I get there? I'll be too sick to drive myself. I'll have to call a friend to take me to the hospital. I hope that we make it in time. People are dying of the flu. I could die of the flu! As ridiculous as this line of thinking was, what came next was even crazier. While contemplating the inevitably fatal influenza (which I did not yet have), I realized that if someone came to take me to the hospital, that person would see my apartment. I'd been meaning to clean it for days, but sometimes I'm lazy. It hadn't seemed important until I realized someone was actually going to see my mess. So, the housecleaning, which this morning seemed unimportant, jumped to the top of my priority list. I felt terrible. I had a low-grade fever, a headache, and I was exhausted, and I decided that the most important thing to do was clean. So, I cleaned house just as fast as I could before the fever got worse and I was forced to rush to the hospital for the flu I didn't yet have. Sometimes, I'm ridiculous.  Read the full article…

The "What If" Behind Your Fears Posted: Apr 06, 2010 by Naomi Cassata It grips you with a mere thought of what could be. Its goal is to bring you into utter submission to its power until you are at its mercy. It feels like a tightly bound rope—freezing, paralyzing, tormenting its every victim--not willing to yield even an inch. It preys on the vulnerable areas of our lives; you know, the parts that we haven't yielded completely over to God, and little by little conquers our frailties, mastering our every weakness. When it succeeds in one area, it moves on inch by inch, trying to cover as much ground as possible when, in reality, the extent of its power is limited to what we are willing to succumb to. This is how fear takes hold of our thought life.  Read the full article…