Good morning... Recently, my husband Steve and I hosted a Community Christian Seder. People from all walks of our lives over the past thirty years joined us to celebrate the Jewish tradition of Passover overlaid with the life-giving teachings of Jesus. What a meaningful evening we enjoyed together. As we know, Jesus himself was celebrating a Passover meal [...]
Good morning... I very rarely sleep all night long, but this week's Spirit-sparked "birthday cake box" adventure required a huge output of my energy - mentally, physically, and spiritually. I did not blog yesterday, since I slept until 7:45 am when our puppy Cami made her first peep. On Monday, I dropped off our 60 happy treasures to [...]
Good morning... Just one week ago today, our blog post on my 63rd birthday invited everyone to join us in creating "birthday cake boxes" for thirty senior citizens who live in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city. We were hoping for 30 boxes, 30 boxes filled with a cake mix, frosting, oil and birthday candles. What we [...]
Good morning... I am experiencing my once-in-a-lifetime "golden" birthday. I was born in 1963, and I turn 63 today! A longtime friend came up with a fabulous way to celebrate. Jeannine Rollins, a beloved Northside Church member, wrote me after recent a blog post, Kindness Is A Ripple. At the end of our post, we watched a short [...]
Good morning... In class yesterday, we continued to unpack the concept of kindness, one of the fruits of God's Spirit alive in our hearts. We agreed, in the face of so much worldly unrest - polarization, violence, despair - there is one thing we all can do, each moment of every day. We can take a deep breath [...]
Good morning... We began this semester studying one book, Wintering by Katharine May. To our surprise, we will end this semester studying a second book, Parker Palmer's new 25th anniversary edition of Let Your Life Speak. We did not plan this expansion into more, but the seamlessness of these oddly orange book covers, set side by side, offers [...]
Good morning... As my husband and I were away visiting my family in Ohio this weekend, our dog sitter retrieved from the front porch bag after bag, box after box, donated item after donated item. Yesterday, I spent time assembling and dropping off the fifteen Welcome Bags we created for the recovering women arriving for the ISP retreat [...]
Good morning... While we were on the women's retreat two weeks ago, I snapped this photo of a heart shape on the sidewalk. Revisiting it now, I sense a profound epiphany. When the dirt and the residue of our broken lives gradually loosen and fall away, what remains is the heart of Christ. As the song in yesterday's [...]
Happy Valentine's Day... At PAWkids, we beaded bracelets with the kids on Monday and created Valentines for ourselves with the adults on Tuesday. I wrapped up my handmade gift and card, excited to open them this morning when I wake from my second sleep. My bracelet holds one bead [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was a magical day and night. For Christmas, I gave my sister from Ohio a trip to Atlanta to join me for Kay Warren's talk at Peachtree Road Methodist Church. After a full day of crazy flying delays, Cathy finally arrived yesterday morning just in time for us to change clothes, hop in the car, [...]
