the unlikely orange

twelve years ago i started making a video of our children as a mother's day tribute to their mother, and somehow it became a tradition.  back then, our oldest son was 3 years old, and cute.  now he's 15 and, well, not so cute .  however, we have really come to love this tradition, and the time capsule of sorts that it has become.  we love looking back at each year's video, to see how we've grown and changed, and how our love for Shannon has remained constant. below is this year's video, and if you want to walk with us down memory lane, the other eleven are down there as well.  happy mother's day to all the mom's out there...you make us feel like a million bucks. 2020 2019 2018 2017 2016 2015 2014 2013 2012 2011 2010 2009

i love to travel, and i love music.  and i also love where the two intersect.  so, whenever i travel, i love to make sure my music matches my context.  recently, as we've taken family vacations over the last few years to california and florida, i have made mix cd's as the soundtrack to our trip.  well, this year is no different.  we are headed to arizona (to see the grand canyon, sedona, and several other places), and so i have put together a mix cd (yes, i still like cd's: OLD SCHOOL) of songs related to our journey and some of the places we'll be.  you can see the songs and the artwork, and you'll be able to see some pictures over the next week or so of our adventures.  here's to the journey!

"ash wednesday 2020: where is God?" mixed media collage (acryclic paint, found papers, masking tape, glue on hardcover bookboard) gregory a. milinovich february 2020 where is God in all of this?  it's a question we've been asking for millenia.  just as we may look at intense beauty and see God as clear as the light of day, we may also look at tragedy and despair and see the absence of God like a dark fog.  in fact, it is this darkness like a fog that the prophet Joel writes about in Joel 2.  he writes of a darkness during the day.  like a blanket covering the land.  like an approaching army of death.  it's a stark image, but don't act like you can't relate.  from the atrocities of our human history to the sense of impending doom in our world today (mass shootings, natural disasters, violence, racial hatred, pandemic virus worries, and more), we have all felt like the darkness is an approaching army, a falling fog of hazy hopelessne...

"isn't that wonderful?" he always asks/asserts with a childlike smile, every time i talk to him.  it's as if he's barely even aware that he's asking it, the positivity just oozing out of him, uncontainable, a product of his relentlessly consistent approach to life. i'm talking about Joe Humphreys, the subject of an excellent 2019 documentary film, and the frequent holder of a seat about 7 or 8 pews back to the right, aisle seat, at St. Paul's United Methodist Church and Wesley Foundation, where i am blessed to serve as the pastor.  when i get a chance to greet him, he'll often ask about my family, or how things are going with me, and when i answer, he'll respond with that characteristic smile, "isn't that wonderful?"  it's impossible not to feel a sense of wonder when you talk to Joe.  for one thing, he's 90 years old/young, but surprisingly spry in body, mind, and heart.  for another thing, he is a bit of a celebrity...

merry Christmas, yinz guys.  we've been marking our advent journeys with an annual video now for the last twelve years!  for this latest installment, we used the Tractors' version of "Run, Run Rudolph," as a metaphor for all of our running around, and i hope it shows that we've had a real blast this year, preparing for Christmas.  you'll see scenes from getting our tree, making cookies, concerts, impromptu dance sessions, making snowflakes, and much more.  enjoy. 

happy thanksgiving, everyone.  i have so much to be thankful for.  so, much, in fact, that it's almost overwhelming and embarrassing.  but one of the things i am most thankful for this year is my health.  at the beginning of 2019, my weight had reached an all-time high, and i was about as physically unhealthy as i had ever been.  i decided that i needed to do something about it, but it took me several months to get started.  i started in earnest around the beginning of June, and since then i've been running regularly and eating better.  and since the beginning of the year i have lost over 50 pounds.  this picture of me shows me in the same t-shirt back in march, and yesterday.  you can see the difference.  today, as part of my ongoing journey, i ran a half marathon.  13.1 miles.  #thanksgivingthirteenpointone.  it feels so good to have gotten that active and to feel better in my joints and in my energy level.  ...