Good morning... Luke 3:4 whispers, “Prepare the way of the Lord.” In his chaplain's devotional message this week, my husband Steve remembers with us the focus of this Advent season. May we practice the presence of the living Christ born in and through us today. ****** "Prepare the Way of the Lord" by Rev. Steve Allen - December [...]
Good morning... We discussed chapter two in our book for the semester, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton. Solitude. Creating Space for God. For me, this felt like an inviting chapter title. As always, we began our prayer time with several moments of silence to listen more keenly to the birds, our [...]
Good morning... Yesterday morning I clicked on the small lamp beside my guest bed to see my shorthaired Betty angel holding a tiny red leaf from our holy hike up the North Carolina mountain to lay to final rest the ashes of our spiritual mentor. I checked my phone to read 7:23. Instead of writing a blog post, [...]
Good morning... One of my inner circle friends is an inner circle friend of the Haley family. I have kept in prayerful texting contact with my close friend as she inches through the grief process, intimately supporting her close friend, Dr. Carla Haley. Last Saturday both women sat together in the Pittsburg, Pennsylvania pews as the legacy of [...]
Good morning... Last night I made twelve Stromboli, six to serve our son's high school friends in our busy basement and six to share with his college friends as they move into their rental home this afternoon. Straddling two life chapters, two different seasons, two separate towns - Atlanta and Athens - Stromboli chills in our refrigerator right [...]
Good morning... Strolling our dog down a very familiar street, a breeze picked up and this beautiful blossom floated down at my feet. I stopped and marveled at the exquisite design. Right before my eyes, this fragile flower had just switched from the process of living fully to the process of dying quietly. In one instant, one moment, [...]
Good morning... Many of you have written to ask more about the EMOTION WHEEL talked about in yesterday's blog post, Treasure Each Tuesday. So, I went on a treasure hunt to find a copy of a similar image for our written word community, and viola! Here it is. Take a moment to look over the emotions detailed above. [...]
Good morning... After a very significant phone conversation, she wrote me a thought-provoking text. "I just saw a photograph on Instagram this evening, the pain and the trauma expressed needs no fact checking," she wrote. "The image was a black woman holding a handwritten sign that read, 'We live in a world where trained cops can panic & [...]
Good morning... "Every morning God paints a different sunrise," my friend texted me a Jon Piper quote on the day we were leaving the beach as she was arriving. "He never gets tired of doing it again and again. But then it struck me. No, he doesn't do it again and again. He never stops doing it." "The [...]
Good morning... After teaching our Zoom class in the cozy quiet of our newly decorated church parlor, I packed up my candle and laptop, I gathered my phone and purple notebook, and, after talking with a few friends on the staff, I walked out into the brick courtyard on the way to our car. Just outside the door, [...]
