We’re covered in paint, and the lawn is too, fenced in brown, the geese calling autumn and trees dropping leaves. Everywhere, color. Color is music for the eyes. We’re finger-painting in the grass, my son and I. He’s one-and-a-half and he’s never done this before....

I paint them orange and yellow, acrylic-thick, and they bloom on canvas. Sunflowers for she who brought me lilacs in June, and it’s winter so I make the beauty I long to find, that I long to place in a mason jar. The canvas sits against crimson walls, and I wish its flowers smelled real....

Thanks to so many people who took up our Christmas in Verse invitation, posting something small to capture the "big things of Christmas." I did not have room for all I would have liked to feature. So I hope you'll click through the full list of participants at the end....

Joe was a good athlete in high school. He was one of the stars on our basketball team and our baseball team. But his real talent was art. Joe could paint. None of us were surprised when he decided to major in art education at college. One time I visited Joe’s office, and there was a new black and white photo hanging on the wall....