Good morning... Just one week ago today, our blog post on my 63rd birthday invited everyone to join us in creating "birthday cake boxes" for thirty senior citizens who live in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city. We were hoping for 30 boxes, 30 boxes filled with a cake mix, frosting, oil and birthday candles. What we [...]
Good morning... I am experiencing my once-in-a-lifetime "golden" birthday. I was born in 1963, and I turn 63 today! A longtime friend came up with a fabulous way to celebrate. Jeannine Rollins, a beloved Northside Church member, wrote me after recent a blog post, Kindness Is A Ripple. At the end of our post, we watched a short [...]
Good morning... This is a week to celebrate Baby Allen, our first grandchild now developing in a cozy womb, as we anticipate his May 15th due date. On Thursday morning, our class celebrated my birthday a few days early by showering me with children's books. These favorite treasures will stay at "Sue Sue's" [...]
Good morning... After reading our blog post entitled Journeying With Cancer, a friend pulled out the words above. "This paragraph especially 'spoke' to me today," she wrote, "when I'm feeling frustrated with not being able to 'keep up' with my own expectations." Within the hour, another friend texted me the image below. [...]
Good morning... Over this wild winter weekend, my husband and I flew to Ohio for a brief visit with family. As we gathered with my parents and my siblings, their spouses and a few of my sister's kids, I spent some quiet quality time with my mom privately. At age 87, slowly recovering from four years of various [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, as I drove to the vet with our six month old puppy, a tiny dream of mine died. Honestly, I have always wondered if I would whelp at least one litter of puppies in my lifetime. In awe of the cyclical nature of life, I have thought that helping my dog to give birth to [...]
Good morning... This harsh winter has been the perfect season for us to be reading Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. On page 68, Wintering "...offers us a cyclical metaphor for life, one in which the energies of spring arrive again and again, nurtured by the deep retreat of winter. We [...]
Good morning... Happy New Year! There is no better way to recognize new phases of growth than to remember where we were while celebrating where we are. Two photos, set side by side, tell the story of natural, unstoppable growth. One is from October; the other was taken last night just after the ball dropped in Time Square. [...]
Good morning... After creating Martha's Happy Painting, my artist friend, Gina, talked about the process of transforming the unfinished painting I had purchase at a flea market. "Sue, the original looked like the painter was struggling with body form, layout and color," Gina wrote. "The colors were cold and it had no depth. I did not like the [...]
Good morning... I've told you about Martha Kimbel, our friend who had taught beloved fitnesses classes at Northside Church for twenty-five years. Eight years ago her husband's Alzheimer's worsened and she needed to stay home as his full time caregiver. Two years ago, her husband, Chris, went to heaven. Martha feared her dancing days were over, but, in [...]
