Good morning... "I hate to be the one to tell you, but she really doesn't like you, Sue," one friend said to me about a person I actually considered an important friend. "She's talking badly about you," another woman said at a different time and place. Of all of the mixed emotions I have wrestled with this Lenten [...]
Good morning... I woke to an email sharing one of my favorite poems. ****** "The Guest House" by Rumi This being human is a guest house. Every morning a new arrival. A joy, a depression, a meanness, some momentary awareness comes as an unexpected visitor. Welcome and entertain them all! Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows, who [...]
Good morning... As we drove home from a wonderful wedding weekend, Steve and I listened to a podcast which included a story about two wolves. Later, I researched the Native American tale. I invite you to take three minutes to enjoy the retelling of the first version I uncovered. “Why are you so angry?” the Lord asked Cain. [...]
Good morning... "Our hands imbibe like roots," says St. Francis of Assisi, "so I place them on what is beautiful in this world. And I fold them in prayer, and they draw from the heaven's light." Imbibe. I love this wildly thirsty word. 1. To drink; gulp down. 2. To absorb; soak up. 3. To receive into the [...]
Good morning... One morning meditation draws us into intimacy with God. When we feel overwhelmed by life, it is time to deeply trust. ****** A Simple Act Of Trust by Henri Nouwen O Lord, all you ask of me is a simple “yes,” a simple act of trust, so that your choices for me can bear fruit in [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's post, Okay And Not Okay, she texted right away. "I don't know if Jelly Roll meant this to be a song about faith," she said, "but that's how I hear it." Coincidentally, just the night before on the American Idol show, Jelly Roll was announced as the celebrity coach who will help the contestants [...]
Good morning... Walking toward the excruciating pain of the cross, Jesus is described as "a man of sorrows and suffering, knowing sadness well" (Isaiah 53:3, NLV). How well do we each know our own sadness? In our therapeutic community group, we explored the experience of sadness, the different forms sad can take. Big sad. Small sad. Light sprinkling [...]
Good morning... As shared in yesterday's blog post, Jesus came to nineteen year old Audrey DeShetler in a vision, washing clean her weary feet. "Audrey, you are well." She heard Jesus speak to her directly for the very first time. Then later in the day, another friend wrote to me: "After reading today’s blog, I had to share [...]
Good morning... I began my 62nd birthday week writing a blog post entitled The Art of Aging. Now, look what I just found tucked on our bookshelf - a book entitled The Art of Aging by Sherwin B. Nuland. I vaguely remember a generous friend giving me this gift a while back, and I had yet to open [...]
Good morning... In our reading for this week, our class discovered a unique quote by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on page 153 of Practicing the Way by John Mark Comer. "Whatever your life's work is, do it well... If it falls your lot to be a street sweeper, sweep the streets like Michelangelo painted pictures, like Shakespeare [...]
