Good morning... Many of you resonated with my recent post My Ministry As A Mermaid. I am grateful for your encouragement, and I have received so much more than your kind affirmation. God drew me into intimacy in surround sound, though a child's voice, through a journal, through a necklace, through a wine label, and eventually through my [...]
Good morning... "Let's say I'm a plumber," said Dallas Wallard during an interview with Jan Johnson, "and I'm going to clean out someone's sewer. How will I do this as Jesus would do it? If you encounter difficulties with the people you're serving or with the pipe or machinery, you never fight that battle alone. You invoke the [...]
Good morning... Okay, I just have to tell you a really embarrassing story. One summer day, I parked our van in the garage like normal, like I do every day. As I walked around the back bumper into our house, I noticed a plastic box hanging on the garage wall. "Huh," I thought, "I've never seen that before." [...]
Good morning... We pick up our story where God left off. When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then [...]
Good morning... "We were asked to look around the room and record in our minds everything red," she explained. (For example: red paint, red candle, red pillow, red flower.) "Next," she said, "we were told to close our eyes. After a few moments, we were instructed to remember anything in the room that was blue." Red. Red is [...]
Good morning... Each journal is a hairband, holding "who I am" in place. The rats nest of me is teased out, combed through, then braided loosely with my pen. Morning after morning, silent solitude weaves my strands. Laying prostrate on the page, my growing hairs are held secure. With feelings pulled back from my face, I glimpse God's [...]
Good morning... "Those who have abandoned themselves to God always lead mysterious lives and receive from him exceptional and miraculous gifts by means of the ordinary, natural and chance experiences in which there appears to be nothing unusual," notices Jean-Pierre de Caussade. "The simplest sermon, the most banal conversations, the least erudite books become the source of knowledge [...]
Good morning... Over the phone a friend shared with me a quote she had just happened upon. "When I wake up in the morning," EB White once said, "I can't decide whether to enjoy the world or improve the world, that makes it difficult to plan the day." My friend went on to think out loud. "I can easily [...]
Good morning... During our Spiritual Direction training program, our visiting professor Jan Johnson called me forward. She invited me to sit in a chair in front of the whole class. Jan stood beside me, leaning in close, gently laying her hands on my head, softly stroking my hair, as she slowly recited the 23rd Psalm from the Message translation. [...]
Good morning... Always looking for the next book to teach, I mostly chose one book because it was short and simple, it had intriguing quotes and soulful pictures, and it was on the sale table at a local, eclectic store. I fell in love with the first words of the introduction: “Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”) is a quality of presence [...]
