Good morning... As I walked the mile long trail around the Ignatius House Retreat Center, I noticed the restorative beauty of the fallen trees. Though the keepers of the sacred grounds clear the rugged paths, they allow the decaying debris to naturally rest on the fertile forest floor. Like meandering through a mysterious museum, I marveled at the [...]
Good morning... The morning after snapping happy photos of our grandson Charlie last week, I looked down on our driveway and saw this gut-wrenching sight. A red frog had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocently squished by the tire of my husband's car. By no fault of it's own, the poor fella was [...]
Good morning... "Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for our home," C.S. Lewis wrote in our post from yesterday. I have heard it said, "We are just walking each other home." Our eternal home awaits us beyond. For her junior year in high school, in [...]
Good morning... Following the past two posts about the DeShelters missing their daughter Audrey, who went to heaven ten hours before her twentieth birthday, a friend from Florida emailed me. "Good morning Sue," she wrote. "I cannot imagine what Jennifer and Ben are facing as parents. Blessedly God surrounds us with angels here on earth to comfort and [...]
Good morning... On September 1st, Jennifer DeShetler posted the tribute above to her daughter, Audrey. I zoomed in close and read the plaque resting in the right front corner of the photo. "She is a mountain moving, giant slaying, world changing warrior. She walks with Jesus. That is her game changing strategy." What a perfect description of audacious [...]
Good morning... Two weeks ago, our Fab 5 friend group circled up with Jennifer DeShelter over lunch. Jennifer is the mother of beloved Audrey, who passed away fifteen months ago after a fifteen year battle with pediatric cancer. Then last week, Audrey's dad, Ben, posted this moving message on Facebook. ****** This week would have marked the beginning [...]
Good morning... On Tuesday morning, we returned again to our therapeutic community group on the PAWkids campus in Grove Park. Men and women. Young and old. Black and white. We gathered again following our summer break. For our activity, we chose various cards from a deck of images to give voice to things we've experienced since last seeing [...]
Good morning... While on retreat Monday and Tuesday, we spread out into delightfully inviting guest rooms. One friend brought me into her room, and said, "Sue, look what's on my bedside table." Wow. It was The Circle of Love, a small, hardback book of meditations written by my spiritual mentor Betty Skinner. How dear. We just happened to [...]
Good morning... As pressures pile up and anxiety spirals down, we can feel buried beneath the stress. This simple Instagram post helps us to see the light. "The best part is yet to come," whisper the seed and the egg, the cocoon and the storm. "The best part is yet to [...]
Good morning... When I shared this image in yesterday's blog post, a friend responded, "I love this reframing of hanging on by a thread!" "I'm reminded of William Stafford's poem The Way It Is," she continued. "What a reassurance to know there is a God and a power for us we can hold onto and never let go." [...]
