by Laura Monteros
Not all spiritual journeys are spiritual. Sometimes they take the pregnant wife of a missionary across the frozen tundra of Alaska in a dogsled, turn a teenager into a seagoing cowboy, land a retired minister on the stage at Carnegie Hall, encounter an angry Taliban commander in Kabul, or reveal the wealth of diversity on Los Angeles trains.Using All the Colors is a vibrant collection of stories and recollections from more than two dozen authors who have shared their experiences in a weekly writing group at Monte Vista Grove Homes in Pasadena, California. The collection is edited by the writing group’s facilitator, Anna Walker.
Monte Vista Grove is a community of mostly Presbyterian retired church workers who have lived on six continents and served as pastors, missionaries, executives, and support workers. They bring a wealth of experiences to the class, and now share them with a broader audience in the release of Using All the Colors.
Told with rare humility and grace, the stories are historical, philosophical, humorous, personal, and at times theological, but never preachy. They resonate with the joys and fears we all have as human beings, offering a hand in friendship to the reader.
The title, Using All the Colors, calls to mind a box of crayons. An artist may limit herself to a handful of crayons, or dump out the whole box in all its splendor and use all the colors.
The writers in this anthology use all the colors to take readers through nine decades on journeys to places exotic and familiar: a World War II internment for foreign nationals in the Philippines; San Francisco’s Chinatown of 80 years ago; a stunningly beautiful day for man—and bear—in the mountains above Pasadena, California; Egypt, Rhodesia, Iowa, Pakistan, Michigan, England, New England, Brazil, China, and the always charming Tucumcari, New Mexico.
The book is available through CreateSpace and Amazon.com. Proceeds benefit Monte Vista Grove Homes.
