Good morning... "It is a blessing to still have our mothers," a friend wrote after visiting her mom for her 86th birthday. I just returned home from Ohio after a successful surgery for my own 85-year-old mom. "Praise the Lord for good news about your mom's surgery, Sue!" wrote another dear friend. "Speaking of [...]
Good morning... Collected with discarded Christmas trees, our son brought home a gorgeous, white poinsettia, a lovely plant who is slightly past her prime. First, I drizzle water on her drying soil. Then, I tenderly pluck off her crumpled up parts - leaves, blooms, empty stems. Finally, I find the perfect spot for her to rest on the [...]
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I scroll through photos I snapped last month while visiting my parents in Ohio. As my mom and I went on a walk through the welcoming sidewalks of their senior living community, I took the picture above at one of her favorite resting spots on a bench outside the [...]
Good morning... Around 7:00 pm on Thursday night, an email was sent out by The Lovett School. After nearly 29 years of serving as the head chaplain, my husband, Steve, is taking on a new role at the school next year. As Chaplain Emeritus, Steve will expand his pastoral care to the wider Lovett community and create a [...]
Good morning... On Wednesday night in the Northside Church sanctuary, Ron Greer shared wisdom with us from his new book The Quiet House: Reflections on the Loss of a Spouse. He said, "This book is like a parable, a story with a lesson. Parable also means 'placing beside,' a story we place beside the story of our lives. [...]
Good morning... At eighty-five years old, my mom is beaming, buoyant, beautiful. She has pushed through really tough medical challenges these past few years. With her moving through the ICU twice, I have paid close attention to one of my favorite poets who has recently been writing about her own mother in the ICU. Her mom also has [...]
Good morning... Now that our kids are grown, I love generating joy with other children. This Halloween morning would feel so different for me without the fun memories made yesterday. There are moments when I waste the time gifted to me. Selfish. Ho-hum. Disconnected. [...]
Good morning... In our Friday morning group, we hosted a surprise birthday party for one of our friends. Classmates brought gifts and notes, balloons and a homemade cake. Along with briefly discussing our chapter, we created sandtrays, forming an expressive world with miniature symbols in colorful sand, verbally describing how it feels to gather weekly with our loyal [...]
Good morning... As we wake on World Gratitude Day 2023, I am totally thankful for unplanned God-moments like the one I experienced yesterday morning. Okay. So we have random books strewn throughout our home. With six people having lived in our family for over the past twenty-eight years, we have remnants of days gone by littering our living [...]
Good morning... The wild thunderstorm outside matches how I feel on the inside. Drenched. I feel drenched with swirling emotions. The wordless prayer card above has been sitting beside me for the past few weeks, silently speaking my hidden worries and my deepest desires. The image reminds me of the bright, light-filled kitchen table in my parents' independent [...]
