Good morning... A longtime friend has also had a loved one fighting for life in the ICU this month. We have been exchanging private prayers and texting one another updates most every day. She wrote me an email after this week's blog post My Mom's Bumpy Ride Home, a post which ended with a music video of Willie [...]
Good morning... There are many, many of layers of me. Wife. Mother. Attentive listener. Writer. Teacher. Lifelong learner. Daughter. Middle sister. Midwestern roots. Trusted friend. Dog mama. Lover of the sun, the sea, the sky. Avid prayer-er. Spiritual director. Middle of the night blogger. "Spirit of the living God, please move through the many layers [...]
Good morning... I have continued to think about a random quote shared in our supervision group last week. "There are a lot of people who work for God and very few who actually work with God." Changing just one word makes all the difference. What might it mean for us to work with God rather than working for [...]
Good morning... During our Friday morning class, we wondered together how we ordinary people might actually hear the guiding voice of God. Enlivening our discussion, one of our classmates told us a true story. Lake Blue Ridge is a thin place for this friend, a sacred spot where heaven and earth seem seamlessly bound. On one of her [...]
Good morning... After texted about My Rough Re-entry, my friend responded with life-giving words. "You are carrying the load," she noticed, "yoking with so many." "This morning I read a Kate Bowler devotional (my Lenten practice) from _Good Enough_," my friend explained. "She wrote about this idea: Sometimes there are two selves - a 2:00 am self (the [...]
Good morning... It can be hard to re-enter life's normal rhythm after being swept up into mountaintop moments. Personally, quietly, my re-entry has been rough. Sharing my truth, I found myself texting a friend in the middle of the night. "I am taking my time re-entering the rhythm of life following our ten day trip through Israel," I [...]
Good morning... I have texted with a dear friend whose husband was forced to retire this week due to worsening health concerns. "My heart is heavy," she wrote. "We finished moving him completely out of his office yesterday. 35 years as a lawyer, reduced to a few boxes piled in a closet in the home office we are [...]
Good morning... Walking the unique path set before our feet, we might be encouraged by this devotional message rising with the sunshine yesterday morning. ****** DAILY MEDITATION | MARCH 14, 2022 - Find Your Own Path to Love by Henri Nouwen Every time you make free time for God, you clear up a bit of the descending path, [...]
Good morning... In every life there are mountaintop moments. The birth of a baby and grand graduations. Joyful engagements and fabulous weddings. Quiet "Ah-ha" moments experienced in private and loud celebrations swarming with loved ones. Once in a lifetime trips and breathtaking vistas. (See the photos and reflections taken from the mountaintop of my first trip to Israel, [...]
Good morning... We spent our final night on the calming shores of the Sea of Galilee before beginning our journey up to Jerusalem. On the way, we stopped in Nazareth and gathered together on the top of Mt. Precipice, a place we could totally envision Jesus standing himself right above his hometown. We read a moving [...]
