Hope is Alive/ Espoir est Vivant

WHAT IS HOME? 

*A reoccurring question mark that is found in my personal, local, global and eternal existence*

I am convinced home is something to be created, cultivated and shared. The journey in-between "here" and "there" can often be marked with pain, disappointment, hurry seeking direction. This hunger and thirst for home is persistent, pushing us into foreign lands, across borders, into new families and confronted with the daily decision to invest and bloom wherever you may be planted. 

Birthdays are for gathering, singing, dancing and eating. To commemorate my 23 years spinning around the sun I wanted to celebrate the gift of life with others. My parents chose to give me the name "Hope", with it has come a lifelong search for substance and light. Full of expectations, dreams and desires I continue to thirst for fullness in this gift of life. Hope is alive in Paris... Through art, social engagement and sharing stories I feel fully alive. 

Paris is plump with potential and inspiration. Art oozes and drips from every corner. The evening was full of spontaneity and home. Family was found in conversations, connections and collaboration. The recipe for the evening included:

-An ancient cave used by Monks in the 1200s, later turned into a Jazz Club and now turned into a community space called "Genesis"

- a type writer to write notes 

-funfetti cookies (the batter brought all the way from a Betty Crocker's box in the US)

-heartfelt and authentic music by Jasmine Guerrero

- Dancing, clapping, conversations

-Stangers, sisters, travelers, old friends and roommates all together in one space

-French rosé, Chinese green tea, English cookies, lots of snacks

- Art work by :

Tzu-Fang Cheng

Béatrice Decomisos

Sylvie Glock

Miranda O'Mahony

Larissa Roy

Sumin Do

Melissa Livermore

Antonio penido

poem written in 2015 from "Hopeful for Home" art exhibit:

Heaven’s Home

{Personal Poem}

Hopeful for home

I no longer feel so alone

My brokenness redeemed

The pain and hurt is not as it had seemed

My home is in the heart

Social engagement through art

home is wherever I’m with you

I was planted and there I grew

A heart remodeled by love

God’s forgiveness sent from above

That came down to earth and knocked

On the door to my heart, my life was forever rocked

He came in and made his home

For eternity I’ll never be alone

In his safety I’m made whole

Heaven is my destination and my goal

Home is with humanity

His name Jesus, in him I find love’s authenticity

My last breath here on earth

Will be my very first in heaven

Death of the physical

The birth of eternal life found on day seven