Good morning... Yesterday afternoon we had our final Monday class of the fall semester. To keep our attendance high, we have learned to end classes before the week of Thanksgiving. After reading a poem about effortless unity with God, sharing the details of some very important prayer concerns, and fleshing out a Spirit-led giving opportunity, together we read [...]
Good morning... As I wake in gratitude for these early morning hours, I envision myself quietly living my favorite Mother Teresa quote: "I am a little pencil in the hand of writing God who is sending a love letter to the world." As I invest two or three hours prayerfully pondering, writing, and editing words during the wee [...]
Good morning... On this hazy Saturday morning, my husband and I debriefed from yesterday over coffee. Much like we did during our long season of parenting four active kids born six years apart, we needed to divide and conquer to cover our important Friday commitments. Steve went to the memorial service of Sarah French while I went to [...]
Good morning... "Loving your offerings!" wrote an old friend after yesterday's post Our Little Oil Lamp. "We are in Jerusalem and heading to the Old Jerusalem shortly. I have seen replicas of these little oil lamps and it makes me smile to read your morning sharing!" Soon after came the voice of another friend over the phone. "The [...]
Good morning... Monday morning's drizzle drenched our outdoor furniture, so our afternoon class was drawn inside. Our intimate circle of women savored a life-giving conversation, reading these words aloud from page 43 of Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. ****** Turning Contemplation into Action I have a little oil lamp that a friend gave me, and it's a constant [...]
Good morning... "The universe is wider than our view of it," reminds Henry David Thoreau. As my friend struggles to come to terms with a difficult diagnosis, she regularly takes time away to release her fear, her worry, her "What if?" Creating quiet spaces of waiting, wishing, wondering, my friend rests in widening pockets of God's enduring joy. [...]
Happy Halloween! "Everyone must decide," said Martin Luther King Jr., "whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." "To be a person of faith is to make a choice to center one's life around the deeper center of gravity we call God, and the greater good of all creation, rather [...]
Good morning... I got news this weekend of a cancer diagnosis in the families of two friends - one, a brave 36 year old daughter, and the other, a nearly 90 year old mother who is so dearly loved. Pondering the precarious balance between life and death, I am drawn to a poem I met a while back. [...]
Good morning... "We cannot come to the altar in conflict," said yesterday's Betty Skinner quote. "But, God, hadn't we just written the opposite?" I thought to myself. Our post, Quiet The Voice Of Despair, had just revealed our honest truth: The voice of despair and the voice of "I love you" play tug-o-war in us sometimes. This common [...]
Good morning... I love the healing rituals we do while on retreat. Usually, that is. Usually, I love each wise healing ritual. But yesterday, as instructed, I blindly picked out a rock from a soft bags of stones, and I didn't like it. I didn't like the engraved stone randomly resting in my hand. Other people picked rocks [...]
