Good morning... The morning after the U.S. 2020 election results were confirmed by blending the voices from red and blue states, I woke up to a text. "Good morning!" wrote a forever friend. "This story made me think of you! We all need some violets in our world right now!!!" Then I read aloud to myself the pages [...]
Good morning... The subject line in his email read, "A Nifty Poem." Opening the gift this Sunday morning after Christmas 2020, I was invited outside the box with God. "I've never seen that poem before," he wrote, "and yes it is quite appropriate for now. You know, we were talking about this recently, that I've gone to church [...]
Good morning... Emmanuel, God-with-us, is born anew today. God humbles himself to put on skin, to grow up with us, to walk beside us, to quietly guide us. Christ's footprint mirrors our footprint, wherever slushy, sloppy circumstances greet us at rise of sun. Day after day, night after night, God's experience gently mirrors our experience so we never [...]
Good morning... Fifty-eight years ago today, my husband Steve surprised his parents by arriving three weeks early. From the pulpit as a Presbyterian minister, his father was able to announce a double meaning at each Christmas Eve service, "Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given!" Fast forward to now. Do you remember that [...]
Good morning... From a handful of people whom I love dearly, I was forwarded the following email over the past week. The Christmas Star appearing this year on December 21 is making news. It is amazing that this occurrence is in the year 2020. In the year when Jesus was born there was violence, chaos, political and social [...]
Good morning... Her family is taking new form this holiday season as she experiences the two sided coin of her recent divorce. Old fears and new freedoms. Old hurts and new hopes. Old memories and new meaning. Though we are unable to gather in our living room for our weekly class, we walk and talk privately, regularly, with [...]
Good morning... Writing yesterday's blog post, Grass Isn't Always Greener, I was tucked in between two life-giving emails. Before I began writing around 4:30 am, I read the following encouragement from my eighty-seven year old friend. Sue, Thank you for including me in your blog, which cheered me up, once again in the story of our Lord's birth. [...]
Good morning... At Goodwill, pre-pandemic, I was drawn to the ugliest necklace I have ever seen. Gaudy and overcrowded. Heavy and weighed down. Haphazardly strung together and hanging on by a thread. As I picked up the necklace, examining the creation more closely, I admired the individual stones. Natural, God-made gems. Each gemstone was unique, size, shape, and [...]
Good morning... Over Thanksgiving our oldest son said, "Mom, I'm reading this book I think you'd really like." So I opened the beautifully textured hard cover and cozied up to read a few chapters. Here is one quote that taught me more deeply why Jesus coming to earth matters profoundly. The living presence of our loving Lord might [...]
Good morning... "It’s Advent, which usually means a season of hope," my husband wrote yesterday in his chaplain message for Lovett School subscribers. "Unfortunately, this has been a tough year for hope. It’s been difficult to feel the certainty of a better future when 2020 seems to be stuck in a pattern of bad news followed by more [...]
