Good morning…
From Orlando, today I will drive two and a half hours to Ponte Vedra, Florida to share lunch with 92 year old Betty Skinner. It will be my third lunch with Betty, a tiny, tenacious woman who exhales God’s joyous peace with each treasured breath. Nearing the end of her life, Betty shares a beautiful perspective on the process of aging in the prologue of this book I so deeply love.
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The Hidden Life Awakened by Kitty Crenshaw and Dr. Cathy Snapp
Let me begin at the end. The diminishment and pain of aging have brought me to this place. It is no longer a matter of how to continue, but rather how to endure, how to finish well, how to return something beautiful to a bountiful God. I have come to know through the decades that the essence of Christian spirituality does not lie in entertaining a concept of God, but rather lies in articulating a memory of the moments illuminated by God’s love and His presence. Fragile, frail, and mortal as I am, I look back with memories consumed by moments of Presence and Love. Though the shadows are lengthening and the candle is flickering, soon to be snuffed by the unwinding of time, I wait and rest in thoughts that are compatible with my destiny. I see my life as a witness, my spirit echoing through all eternity.
A circle full of ripples
from one pebble in a pond
fades unobtrusively
into forever
like a quiet life
poured out in love.
– Betty Walthour Skinner
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Driving the two and a half hours back to Orlando before flying home to Atlanta tonight, I will savor lasting memories the loving ripples set in motion by Betty Skinner’s well-poured-out life.
Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.
By day the Lord directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life (Psalm 42:7-8, NIV).
…Sue…
