Good morning... Tonight's first full moon of the summer will peak at 7:57 pm. It's called the Strawberry Moon, referring to the fact that strawberries typically ripen and are ready around this time of the year, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac. As I am learning to discern distinctions in the dark, the moon appears full to our [...]
Good morning... As our Thursday group met this month, we began our time by reading aloud this prayer from the Ignatian exercises. Then we unpacked the most famous verse from the book of Micah. He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? [...]
Good morning... I went to the estate sale of a friend who was retiring and moving after thirty fertile years. Instantly, I was drawn to the plaque hanging in her kitchen: "Feel free to sing and dance - you many not get a second chance." So I dished out the $2.00 and came home with the fun find. [...]
Good morning... This quote from Sarah Young's Jesus Always mirrors the quote from Richard Foster's book Prayer: Finding the Heart's True Home. "The truth of the matter is, we all come to prayer with a tangled mass of motives— altruistic and selfish, merciful and hateful, loving and bitter. Frankly, this side of eternity we will never unravel the [...]
Good morning... "Sue," she wrote this week, "your devotional about wide open spaces made me think of sharing with you the works of John O’Donahue. I learned of him through a good friend who was a Methodist pastor and a missionary to Ghana. I shared with him that the school I was teaching at was a Classical Christian [...]
Good morning... Yesterday's post contained the word unfurl. That's a active, little word. Sails and scrolls. Flags and fern fronds. Buds and butterfly wings. These things unfurl. Today in my reading I meet a similar, small word. Unfold. "We sometimes mourn how certain things in our life unfold," writes Paula D'Arcy on page 26 of Waking Up [...]
Good morning... Yesterday in Atlanta, Georgia, the sun rose at 6:27 a.m. It was Sunday, June 21st, marking the summer solstice, bringing the longest day and shortest night of the year to the Northern Hemisphere, ushering in the first official day of summer. We were treated to 14 hours and 24 minutes of total daylight, before [...]
Good morning... For the first time ever, on this special Father's Day, my 89 year old dad is a father, my 63 year old husband is a father, and our 31 year old son is a father. What a rich blessing! This month I have spent quality time with each of these very important men in my life. [...]
Good morning... As I took a walk in a nearby forest, I pondered these words shared by a friend. As we savor the "nowhere important to be" moments of life, God's Spirit grows thick and steady within us. Then another friend wrote, "This quote inspired 'contemplation' this morning." And I breathed [...]
Good morning... The Juneteenth holiday commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans on this day in 1865. June 19th is the perfect day for the Obama Presidential Center, in the south side of Chicago, to open its welcoming doors to the public. In yesterday's opening ceremony, Michelle Obama spoke these encouraging words. "Y'all, hope is all we have, [...]
