Good morning... I have been enjoying Kate Bowler's Joyfully Mediocre Summer Blessing Series. Each Wednesday her weekly email arrives in my inbox. Yesterday's morning message wove itself into me. ***** God, I can’t tell which person I will be today: kind and loving, turn-the-other-cheek and I’ll-be-right-here, soft but strong. I will keep no record of wrongs. I might [...]
Good morning... Sharing honestly from her heart, she texted. "With respect to this week, frankly, it is hard. The days just are hard. Things are hard in this chapter. I know that God will give me the strength I need," she continued. "I know that this will work together for something I don't yet understand. Right now though, [...]
Good morning... Yesterday we huddled around my husband's cell phone to watch a viral video. This week's footage of an avalanche closing in on a vulnerable hiker sparks an honest prayer. "Oh God. Oh dear God." The Lord is my Rock, my fortress, my place of safety. He is my God, the Rock I run to for protection. [...]
Good morning... Sorting through stacks of old stuff, I happen upon a favorite photo. Canoe. Popsicles. Big wheel. Three of our kids with some of their cousins. My mom, a grandmother of twelve, smiling in her mid-sixties. This endearing image is soaked in summer fun. Some of the same cousins, now in their mid-twenties, are pictured [...]
Good morning... When our oldest son was a little boy, he used to search for the smallest grape in every cluster. This fun memory quietly returned when I met an Estonian proverb: “Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.” Now please read with me a Biblical proverb, a proverb I have structured a bit [...]
Good morning... "It has been said that 90 percent of people seem to live 90 percent of their lives on cruise control, which is the unconscious," writes Richard Rohr on page 90 of Falling Upward. "The Holy Spirit is that aspect of God that works largely from within and 'secretly,' at 'the deepest levels of our desiring,' as [...]
Good morning... A truckload of immigrants die in the heat. Loved ones are buried after mass shootings. Wars rage on and on, devastating ordinary lives. These are big newsworthy aches which beg for our prayers. Alongside our communal pain are quieter, daily challenges. Depression. Disabilities. Dementia. Divorce. Death. We all face various aches throughout our lifetime. Aches we [...]
Good morning... I am empowered by the deep wisdom I gleaned from our Ignatius House retreat about Mary Magdalene. Mary had sensed God's inner voice all of her life, a relentless whisper which clashed with the loud male voices in her everyday world. Her father. Her brothers. The powerful men in leadership. Instead of becoming a young wife [...]
Good morning... While on weekend retreat at Ignatius House Retreat Center, I happened upon a touching story. ****** Love Does That (by Meister Eckhart) All day long a little burro labors, sometimes with heavy loads on her back and sometimes just with worries about things that bother only burros. And worries, as we know, can be more exhausting [...]
Good morning... "You and Richard Rohr are on the same page!" an old friend wrote yesterday after reading our post, My Mind Is Reeling. "I am with you … pondering how to simplify," she admitted, sharing the wise blog below. "I know listening to God more is part of the answer. Xo." ****** June 16: Simplicity Is about [...]
