Bill and I experienced our first wildfire in November. We never dreamed it would be on our property.

Lucy Farmer is one of the most fearless of artists, free to try many forms from HGTV home flips to her own line of jewelry (Lucy's Inspired). She's an entrepreneur, a curator of beauty, a resource to artists, and a role model of living a beautiful, adventurous life.

I am trying to unlearn my need (and bad habit) to interrupt and ask too many questions. My tendency to teach and "fix" and give the "right"answer. It's exposing my fear of "What if God doesn't show up?"

I'm learning to "zip my lips" and wait.

It sounds morbid but I love to wander in graveyards and read tombstones. Last year on a visit to Scotland, we explored Glasgow’s Necropolis. Ornate statues, monuments, and mausoleums fill the hill overlooking the city. The oldest grave reads 1832.

It's been more than 12 years since Mary Jo committed to a daily art project where she finds something in nature that inspires her. She says "the art of dailiness" has changed her so she is often in a state of creative noticing or deep play.

Bill reserved a hotel room for April 7 in Fort Smith, Arkansas almost a year ago. Eight hours away. Because it was on the edge of The Path of Totality.

I wondered if that was a famous rock band.

No. It’s the last full solar eclipse in the United States until 2045.

I learned a new word. 

Perseverate. 
 
To repeat something insistently or redundantly. To get stuck, to ruminate, to loop back over and over. And over.
 
As in, “My 91-year-old mother perseverated.” 
 
My mom passed away a year ago. But I’m still haunted by echoes of her three looping ruminations.

What do I most desire as I stare down my failures, confusion, disappointments? I want to be grateful every day, to keep going and trying new things. (Which means I want to keep failing.) I want to love Jesus more and respond to him out of love not as a means to an end. I want to live a life of wide-eyed joy in the mysteries and beauty of life. And I want to laugh uncontrollably—tears streaming and unable to catch my breath—with those around me.

If Wendell Berry were a musician, I think he’d have been Allen Levi. Allen is a man tied to the land and a man who chooses his words and stories with care and compassion. He’s a man who loves Jesus, truly listens to people, and makes beautiful music.

It's my joy that one of my favorite artists, Amy Grimes, is also a friend and neighbor. To take a walk with her is to enter a more hopeful and magical world and see things differently.

Are you trying to find ways to smile this year? Follow Here a Chick, There a Chick on Instagram. Kerry Leasure is an Alabama artist creating mixed media jewelry from antiques, found objects, and a healthy sense of humor.

Now more than ever, we need hope. "A Beauty Refresher" is a window into the world of touching and tasting, smelling and sensing, seeing and reading and hearing hope through artists.