the unlikely orange

this weekend I'm helping direct our conference's local pastors' licensing school. it is amazing to see these young kids (wasn't i young once?) and some not-so-young ones who feel called by God to leave something behind and follow to somewhere new.  maybe i'm thinking about because i got the shocking news yesterday that heath miller is retiring from the pittsburgh steelers after 11 seasons wearing the black and gold. eleven seasons!  the entire time my children have been alive, he's been a steeler. and now he won't be. life goes on. change happens.  and God calls us to new things.  today i was blessed to be up to see the sunrise. it was beautiful. a painted reminder that God's grace comes to us fresh and new every day. and as i stood in prayerful awe, i heard birds.  BIRDS!! and i thought about those birds and their winged journey. i thought about the lands they'd seen and the shores they'd rested on. i thought about how they somehow know inside t...

last night, after our ash wednesday service had ended, Quinton couldn't wait to get home.  he was squirming with excitement, and he kept telling me that as soon as we got home, i had to wash my forehead, to clean off my ashes.  he must have asked three different times if i would wash my forehead as soon as got home.  finally i asked him why he was so concerned about it.  he told me that he wanted to "stamp" me.  i wasn't sure what that was, but with Quin i have learned to just roll with it. so we didn't even have our coats off when he was coming at me with a wipe.  he disappeared for a moment while i cleaned off the ash from a repentant beginning to lent, and he returned with a little hollow plastic block.  checking to make sure my forehead was sufficiently clean, he proceeded to dip his fingers into the block, into what i assume were imaginary ashes.  he reached up towards my face, and i bent down so he could reach, and he pretended to "stam...

"ash wednesday 2016" mixed media assemblage (found objects, acrylic paint, glue on stretched canvas) february, 2016 gregory a milinovich  it's hard to believe that i've been doing this for 10 years now, but this is my tenth ash wednesday collage, an annual ritual of pausing before lent to consider my own brokenness, and how i can creatively express it. this year i did a kind of photo-negative thing where i reversed my colors in order to emphasize both the darkness of my own brokenness, and the latent hope in the oily ashes.  here is last year's collage, and then below that you can see thumbnails of the previous eight.  have a meaningful ash wednesday, and a blessed lent.  

just thought i'd share some shots from our january 2016, which included jackson's eleventh birthday, as well as some serious playing in the snow.  every moment is a new adventure, and there is no camera that can capture them all, nor any other way to lock each one away in memory.  still, we try to be present to as many of them as possible, and cherish them fully.  here are some highlights...