Oops! If you are new to this blogsite, you might like to know my name.

Jane Banzhaf here. Colorado native. Parents were Colorado natives. Roots deep in the old North Denver neighborhood, popularily known in the twenty-first century as Northwest Denver.

Retired mother of three, I’m also a grandmother of seven, Sunday school teacher, gardener, artist, writer – and deeply invested in a local body of Christ and several Bible study groups, teaching as the occasion presents itself. Hmmmm. Perhaps “retired” does not quite fit my profile . . .

Life is a crazy ride from start to finish! As I sit here at my kitchen table, looking out my beloved kitchen window, I sometimes see my life flash before my eyes in great detail, memories so vivid it’s like viewing them on a movie screen. Only that screen is actually my very own kitchen window – my window upon the world. My own, personal, crazy ride.

Much of my writing is oblique, that is, I deal with everyday life – my life! – but angle my thoughts to illuminate those moments where time touches eternity. My favorite approach to writing is free verse, formatting the text to visually enhance content. And I do so love this quote from T.S. Eliot:

“The chief use of the ‘meaning’ of a poem, in the ordinary sense, may be (for here again I am speaking of some kinds of poetry and not all) to satisfy one habit of the reader, to keep his mind diverted and quiet, while the poem does its work upon him: much as the imaginary burglar is always provided with a nice piece of meat for the house-dog.”

 — T.S. Eliot — ‘The Use of Poetry and the Use of Criticism’ [Harvard University Press, 1933]

So, dear reader, be forewarned! My aim is to quietly and respectfully burglarize your mind. And look! – the door of God’s grace stands ajar . . .

Throughout everything, my first and everlasting loyalty and love belongs to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior, in whom I live and move and breathe and have my being (Acts 17:28). From that flows every word I write – every painting, every urge to create. We all have a world view. My eyes see the world through the lens of an unworthy and every so grateful sinner, saved by the ultimate sacrifice of my risen Savior, held safe in His Hand by grace and mercy.

**Visit my other website – RuachArt.com – where I share my adventures in watercolor.

“If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy,
the most probably explanation is that I was made for another world.”
– C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity