© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 "A Friend is a friend forever" Song by Michael W. Smith When I Look Back Across My Life, You Are Still There Some friendships begin before we have any idea who we're going to become. Mine began at Lake Highlands Junior High School more than sixty years ago. We knew each other's families, houses, dreams—and occasionally far too much about each other's childhood adventures. My best girlfriend was Janet—J.J. to me. She loved the buttery crackers my mother kept at our house, and together we invented something we called Wagonning. We had baby brothers about eleven or twelve years younger than we were. When we decided they were sufficiently sturdy, we put them in red wagons, climbed in behind them and raced down one of our steep Lake Highlands hills. The objective? Try not to kill our baby brothers. They loved it. Our mothers never knew. Sixty-three years later, I could probably say one word to J.J.—Wagonning—and she ...
Life continually asks us to step up—to a challenge, a change, a new season, or simply something we aren't sure we can do.
© Laurie Pace Graphics One Design 2026 Red Shoed Pony Dancing Till Dawn Oil on Canvas SOLD by Laurie Pace Sometimes you don't know you need red shoes until you start dancing... Life continually asks us to step up—to a challenge, a change, a new season, or simply something we aren't sure we can do. Right now, my challenge is waiting at my easel. That reminded me of Red Shoed Pony — Dancing Till Dawn, a painting that didn't begin with a horse at all. It began with colors mixing into greens, golds and murky browns. I began carving through the paint until a horse appeared. She wasn't working, so I kept going. Then I noticed the red near her feet. She needed red shoes. And once she had red shoes, I knew she needed someone watching her dance. That's how the second horse arrived. Life has seasons for growing, serving, grieving, waiting—and sometimes simply moving forward. When you feel tired or discouraged, perhaps re...