Good morning... Walking beside the muddy banks of the Chattahoochee river, I was reminded of a quote from our final book of the semester, Let Your Life Speak by Parker Palmer. On page 79, Parker writes about the season of spring. "...before spring becomes beautiful, it is plug ugly, nothing but mud and muck. I have walked in [...]
Good morning... Back to back devotional messages from Henri Nouwen keep me company this week. Both writings come from Nouwen's deeply personal book The Inner Voice of Love: A Journey Through Anguish to Freedom. During my dad's 89th birthday week, it's hard to live far away from my aging parents in Ohio. All of our four grown kids [...]
Good morning... Last week in class, we read aloud much of my favorite chapter in Parker Palmer's Let Your Life Speak. In a chapter entitled All the Way Down, Parker unpacks the most life-giving description of depression I have ever experienced. I posted some of his words yesterday in our blog Befriending Our Depression. Today, I feel drawn [...]
Good morning... "After hours of careful listening, my therapist offered an image that helped me eventually reclaim my life," writes Parker Palmer on page 50 of Let Your Life Speak. "You seem to look upon depression as the hand of an enemy trying to crush you," he said. "Do you think you could see it instead as the [...]
Good morning... When the Holy Spirit in me meets the Holy Spirit in you, the love of God multiplies. But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with [...]
Good morning... "Good morning, Sue!" her text greeted me first thing yesterday. "AHHHH!!! I can’t stop thinking about the ZESTY women and the ZESTY honest sharing yesterday - I feel one thousand percent closer to God in that transparent space than certain times in the past when I had all the perfect answers and impression of total certainty! [...]
Good morning... After reading the quote by Rachel Held Evans shared in yesterday's blog post, as a class we decided to study Rachel's newest book next semester. It's entitled Wholehearted Faith. Up in the middle of the night now, I research a little bit about Rachel, an American Christian columnist, blogger and author. My google search reveals a [...]
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... This day after Labor Day, summer is becoming fall. There are so many forms of natural becoming which surround us at all times. Clever cartoonist, Grant Snider, holds up a mirror to our daily lives, helping us to ponder, "Who am I becoming?" We become what we set our hearts on. And so we are transfigured...our [...]
Good morning... On Saturday morning, I received an email describing how each of us might become a beacon of hope in our Atlanta community. LaTonya Gates, the Founder and Director of PAWkids, reached out to me with this opportunity. ***** Hey Fam 💛 I need y’all in a big way. PAWKids has been given an incredible opportunity to [...]
