Good morning... To end our Zoom gathering, he gently read to us a poem, a poem I had never met. ****** The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may [...]
Good morning... Surprisingly, one of my supervisor's survey questions pierced a sensitive nerve, sort of like when the dentist finds a cavity and pain shoots everywhere. "When it comes to workload at Northside, how heavy is the burden or light is the load?" That was the question striking my nesting nerve. We were asked to respond on a scale [...]
Good morning... A friend ended her email with a quote from Pascal: "In difficult times, always keep something beautiful in your heart." What "something beautiful" - a hope, a thought, a feeling, a memory - rests in the home of your heart right now? Sense it. Savor it. Slip it into your soul. As you focus fully on this "beautiful [...]
Good morning... I remember a poem read at the funeral of a dear friend who died of cancer. I search for it, I find it, and I adapt it to meet the deep need spreading across our globe today. ****** An adaptation of "What Cancer Cannot Do" by Dr. Robert L. Lynn Coronavirus is so limited... It cannot [...]
Good morning... With the Coronavirus changing life so rapidly, last Friday morning I didn't know if women would want to gather in our living room to discuss chapters 9 and 10 in The Hidden Life Awakened. So I sent out an email polling people's opinions about meeting for our weekly class. A few women were nursing a cold [...]
Good morning... I watch the news so I know how to best pray, day after day. I watch different television stations to consider various points of view. I lift in prayer those I see struggling and those I see serving, those I see hurting and those I see helping, those I see reporting and those I see recovering. [...]
Good morning... After the longest night sleep I have had for a while, I opened my journal as usual. Two words formed two lists. On the left side of my blank page I wrote REACT in bold letters. On the right side I wrote the single word RESPOND. Then I allowed various words to cascade into place. REACT [...]
Good morning... Certainly our anxieties could run rampant, with a deadly tornado suddenly ravaging Nashville, the wildfire spread of the Coronavirus, and the biggest drop in one day seen by the Stockmarket. Yet overwhelming anxiety is not our only option. Beloved author Max Lucado says, “Anxiety and gratitude cannot share the same heart.” I actually think anxiety and gratitude [...]
Good morning... Watching a news story, I pulled out a blank piece of paper and jotted down four strong words. "Hate." "Hurt." "Hope." "Heal." Coupled together, they form opposite ends of the continuum upon which our daily life teeters. Hate/Hurt..........................Hope/Heal It is important to ask ourselves, moment by moment, "Which magnetic pull is grabbing my full attention?" God’s [...]
Good morning... First Peter 2:23 sticks with me most constantly from this first week of Lenten blog posts. When [Jesus] was reviled, he did not revile in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly. Many times in our lives stressful storms come our way, and often we cast blame [...]
