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 [...]
Good morning... My friend hosted a stay-at-home sleepover party for the three of us last night. One of us has just turned seventy, the hostess and myself are turning sixty in the coming months. We each are negotiating a gentle bend in the road beneath our feet, shifting from one decade to another. In the middle of the [...]
Good morning... "It seems to me that the human race, all of us, are being given the choice of two ways," says John Halsey. "We can go one way, which is ploughing along the road of power, trampling on people, barking like a dog, the way the people in my firm treated their workers. If you choose to [...]
Good morning... I revisited. I reworked. I reimagined yesterday's blog post. I revisited, reworked, reimagined with God for a very long time. (If you feel drawn, please check out the new version of The Fence Around My Heart). Then I opened up the Wednesday blessing from author Kate Bowler, a prayerful email waiting for my time and attention. [...]
Good morning... There is a woman I am having a really hard time with. We experience life very differently. As much as I see the green in a space, she sees the yellow. I love art, poetry, creative expression. She prefers facts, details, everything adding up rationally. I love the fun of finding fallen feathers. She doesn't like [...]
Good morning... "I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world," said Mother Teresa. I adore this thought. I am. Little. Pencil. Held in God's hand. The steady hand of a writing God. God is sending a love letter through me. A love letter addressed to [...]
Good morning... "Gift from the Sea is a book by Anne Morrow Lindbergh first published in 1955," explains Wikipedia. "While on vacation on Florida's Captiva Island in the early 1950s, Lindbergh wrote the essay-style work by taking shells on the beach for inspiration and reflecting on the lives of Americans, particularly American women, in the mid-20th century. She [...]
Good morning... I admire my husband who, about every three weeks, writes a devotional message for The Lovett School community, where he has been chaplain for over twenty-five years. I think this week's message is one of my favorites. I am hoping you might agree. ****** Chaplain Devotional for September 27th, 2022 by Steve Allen based on Jeremiah [...]
