Good morning…
This Good Friday morning, I wake on a cozy cot in the office of Kitty Crenshaw, co-author of The Hidden Life Awakened. Yesterday, a room full of us gathered at the Deerwood Country Club in Jacksonville, Florida to share a meal of remembrance with the family and friends of Betty Skinner. Betty, the heroine of The Hidden Life Awakened, was a wife, mother, mother in law, grandmother, great grandmother, mentor, teacher, leader, Christian mystic, and dear friend to many. After Betty went to her heavenly home on August 18th, 2021 at ninety-five years old, the family had a private service in her honor and a group of us friends laid to rest some of her ashes in the mountains of Cashiers, North Carolina, but Betty’s family and friends had not formally celebrated Betty’s life together. Until yesterday.
Yesterday, we tasted a delicious feast of deep connection. How meaningful it was to experience the love of Betty’s family and the love of Betty’s friends blending in harmony on Maundy Thursday, the memorable day Jesus celebrated his final earthly meal with his own family and friends. About ten of us friends, some who had known Betty all their lives, some for a shorter season, spoke for about five minutes each. We recounted for this generous family the ongoing influence of our friend Betty. With loving words we painted the colorful picture of Betty’s life as a faithful witness, her spirit echoing through all eternity. In her own words, found in the introduction of The Hidden Life Awakened, collectively we visualized the endlessly expanding love of God.
A circle full of ripples
from on pebble in a pond
fades unobtrusively
into forever
like a quiet life
poured out in love.
I, who had known Betty for the shortest amount of time, concluded my brief remarks with a quote by Richard Rohr.
“Most of us tend to think of the second half of life as largely about getting old, dealing with health issues, and letting go of our physical life, but it is exactly the opposite,” writes Rohr. “What looks like falling can largely be experienced as falling upward and onward, into a broader and deeper world, where the soul has found its fullness, is finally connected to the whole, and lives inside God’s Big Picture.”
Inside God’s Big Picture, Betty Skinner lives on with us. Isn’t this fabulous mystery exactly what the Easter message is all about?
And this is what he promised us—eternal life (1 John 2:25, NIV).
…Sue…
P.S. One way Betty Skinner lives on is through this recording of our day long “Awake To Wholeness Women’s Retreat” hosted in Atlanta November 2021. At your leisure, please enjoy various segments of our transformative day by touching on this link: https://vimeo.com/showcase/9444302
