Good morning... Hindsight offers a rich perspective on the tapestry of our lives. Right now, as we live forward, exactly what comes next hides from our view. Yet eventually, many of us will live on, looking back, telling our children and their children about the COVID-19 story. I am grateful to those who sent me this poignant YouTube [...]
Good morning... Do you know the root word for quarantine? Quarantine is derived from the Latin quadraginta, meaning "forty." Similarly in Italian, quarantine comes from quaranta meaning "forty," which goes on to form the phrase quaranta giorni, which literally means "space of forty days." We have been at this quarantine routine for more than forty days, and as we consider gradually reopening [...]
Good morning... "I loved your post about Zoom fatigue," she wrote. "All so true, describing in detail the pitfalls of the Zoom experience in ways I hadn’t considered before. And yet... there are many blessings in Zoom too." She went on to list a few of her own personal experiences: "I was speaking with my husband yesterday and [...]
Good morning... In a recent post, I sheepishly admitted "I am not drawn to connect through Zoom." As it turns out, I am not alone. "I am SO thankful that you have not zoomed our classes, as I would have felt compelled to “not miss out," one subscriber wrote. "THANK YOU for allowing us to have some perhaps-at-times-uncomfortable [...]
Good morning... "Can I get to the finish line on this?" she asked me honestly, facing a heartbreaking set of overwhelming circumstances. "Finish line." Later the phrase popped back in my mind. "Finish line." I thought of the hilarious YouTube video below, shared when our couple's small group laughed through a fun evening for the first time since [...]
Good morning... Quietly reading this poem aloud, I slowly mulled over every word. ***** Lead Me out of My Doubts and Fears by Ted Loder Eternal God, lead me now out of the familiar setting of my doubts and fears, beyond my pride and my need to be secure, into a strange and graceful ease with my true [...]
Good morning... "It looks like your Mom and I need to get to Atlanta so we can have our hair cut," my dad texted this weekend from Ohio, joking about the controversial decision by Georgia's governor to reopen some "essential businesses." Hair and nail salons. Tattoo and massage parlors. Restaurants, movie theaters, and bowling alleys. Sequestering for several [...]
Good morning... Together we are learning about Ring Theory, concentric circles of support expanding out from each individual (see yesterday's blog post Our Words Matter). During this Covid-19 crisis, we recognize the importance of sending "comfort in" to the front line workers, those in danger, those grieving, and we work our own "grief out" with people in our [...]
Good morning... As we talked by phone for two full hours, one woman sat outside a local Starbucks in the sacred space of her car, another woman was holed up by herself in her now claustrophobic home, and the other sat in the privacy of a closet, door shut to her overcrowded clan. I listened attentively from the [...]
Good morning... "I think we need to cancel the March women's conference," speaker Dr. Cathy Snapp said over the phone. What? What are you talking about? My mind silently reeled. Cancel the "Awake To Wholeness Women's Retreat" we have been planning for over a year? But so many people have invested so many hours. How can we cancel? As [...]
