Good morning... My mom returned home to their independent living villa in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. For nearly a month she slept away from my dad, from hospital stay, through surgery, ICU, colostomy bag, to recovery at the skilled nursing center at their senior living community. Yesterday my mom settled into her favorite chair, grateful and content. My sister [...]
Good morning... I feel caught up in a real life whirlwind. People I love are experiencing high highs - births, weddings, birthdays, a calm return home, a successful heart transplant, a trip to Uganda to nurture single moms and widows. Others I love are facing low lows - repeated scans and a wait for results, the complications of [...]
Good morning... Yesterday a faraway friend suggested I explore a poem entitled "I Am There." So I googled the creative expression and found this fascinating gift. ****** "I Am There" by James Dillet Freeman Do you need Me? I am there. You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by. You cannot hear Me, yet [...]
Good morning... As we wake on World Gratitude Day 2023, I am totally thankful for unplanned God-moments like the one I experienced yesterday morning. Okay. So we have random books strewn throughout our home. With six people having lived in our family for over the past twenty-eight years, we have remnants of days gone by littering our living [...]
Good morning... In our blog posts this week, we have been exploring the tangled-up places inside of us, culminating in yesterday's post, In This Chaos, Where Is God? Without skipping a beat one reader wrote: "I just read your morning offering and then opened this..." "I can smooth out all the tangled-up places, including those in your mind [...]
Good morning... From miles and miles away, she emailed me after yesterday's post, "I'm All Tangled Up." Our heart and head, tangled. Our fear and worry, tangled. Our love and control, tangled. Our anxiety and stress, tangled. Our depression and grief, tangled. Our gray skies and hope, tangled. Our belief and our journey, tangled. We wake toward a [...]
Good morning... A friend emailed me the Nouwen devotional below. It serves as a grounding reminder: joy and sadness are born together. ****** DAILY MEDITATION | SEPTEMBER 9, 2023 - by Henri Nouwen - Every Bit of Life is Touched by a Bit of Death Joy and sadness are as close to each other as the splendid colored [...]
Good morning... A friend sent me these encouraging words from the left page in her book. "You're stepping into a week of answered prayers." What a marvelous perspective to take on our everyday lives. "God is striding ahead of you. He’s right there with you. He won’t let you down; he won’t leave you. Don’t be intimidated. Don’t [...]
Good morning... Several of you have said, "Sue, don't blog this weekend. Just give yourself a break to fully experience your son's wedding." On most levels this advice makes complete sense. "Give yourself a break." Except on one very core level. The challenge is this - I live off of these God's given words. I am deeply nourished, [...]
Good morning... As I woke from my second sleep yesterday, I revisited our blog post, I Don't Know What I Feel. "I created the wordless prayer card above to say what I do not know how to feel," I wrote. "Taking time to really look at the image intimately, what wordless prayers rise up in you now?" I [...]
