Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I snap a photo of the sign that greeted me yesterday as I settled into my parents' villa at their senior living community in Olmsted Township, Ohio. This sign makes me smile. A simple, handcrafted warm welcome. Susie, my nickname growing up. My mother's always beautiful handwriting. The kind [...]
Good morning... Thinking, "I can't process everything," I close my eyes to cocoon in silent dark. I breathe. Breathe deep. Breathe more. Quietly my mind recalls the words of a friend. "The intense hatred of human beings is heartbreaking and hard. Why is everything coming undone?" In sensing without my eyes, I re-realize, the ways of the world [...]
Good morning... A quiet poem greeted me yesterday, a poem named Praying by Mary Oliver. ****** It doesn't have to be the blue iris, it could be weeds in a vacant lot, or a few small stones; just pay attention, then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate, this isn't a contest but [...]
Good morning... Waking in the middle of this night, the moon is irresistible. I am drawn outside to capture the 3:00 am brightness casting a shadow on our deck. Light quietly befriends life's darkness. It always has. It always will. This week Kate Bowler shared the video below, reminding us day and night: Life is so beautiful. Life [...]
Good morning... A friend asked me to bring my folders of pre-cut images, my glue sticks and scissors, my blank cards and transparent sleeves. Together we hosted a gathering to make wordless prayer cards at her home with a group of her longtime friends. What joy! The special morning evaporated in such a personal, passionate, powerful way. To [...]
Good morning... During this night as the moon fills with light, I am drawn to my new book of poems, Poetry of Presence. Randomly flipping to page 57, I nestle into this moment at hand. There is so much we cannot change about this wounding world. Yet, moment to moment, we [...]
Good morning... In our Friday morning group, we hosted a surprise birthday party for one of our friends. Classmates brought gifts and notes, balloons and a homemade cake. Along with briefly discussing our chapter, we created sandtrays, forming an expressive world with miniature symbols in colorful sand, verbally describing how it feels to gather weekly with our loyal [...]
Good morning... Can you imagine my joy seeing my mom's joy as I received the photo above? A fun moment captured on the front porch of their villa and texted to me by my dad last week, my animated mother is pictured reading a book with her first great grandson and my sister. My 85-year-old mom has been [...]
Good morning... I remember sitting on the rug in a circle one morning during my kindergarten year. We quieted down from our giddy as we were each blindfolded. Then, one child at a time, our teacher tenderly held beneath our nostrils a series of everyday items. I was the only one in class who instantly knew the warm, [...]
Good morning... As we settle into non-anxious silence, God's inner music begins to beacon. We are gently drawn toward the peace, the power, the presence of God. "Sue," she wrote after yesterday's blog post, "I always feel overwhelmed by the number of people that I love who desperately need prayer. I could sit all day and hope to [...]
