Good Morning... As I nestled in for the annual retreat weekend with my Writing Sisters from Northside Church, my cell phone read, "No Service." Initially I was frustrated, afraid I might miss something important with family and friends back home. Yet over time I felt my anxiety melt into the mountains of Highlands, North Carolina, and I settled softly into my [...]
Good Morning... “Sue, thank you for bringing Hospice to the forefront of prayer,” one subscriber wrote. “My dad founded Hospice Atlanta Center and was the first medical director there. For so many, ‘hospice’ has such a negative connotation. Yet, it is a ministry of sorts. My dad used to always call it a way to provide people with their ‘soft [...]
Good morning... I sensed God concluding yesterday's message with this deep desire: "Connected to our Creator, I want me, the real me, and you, the real you, to mature into the unique people God is coaxing us to be." This concept had expanded from an vivid picture of the lasting mother/child bond painted on Mother's Day morn to a [...]
Good morning... After reading and re-reading yesterday's post, "What do I want for Mother's Day?" I deepened my thoughts for everyday living. What do I really want each day of my life? I want me, the real me. I want my best self to keep coming around. I want to be the kind of person with whom family and [...]
Happy Mother's Day... "Every year my children ask me the same question," wrote a mother on her Facebook page. "After thinking about it, I decided I'd give them my real answer." She continued: "What do I want for Mother's Day? I want you. I want you to keep coming around. I want you to bring your kids around. I [...]
Good morning... "Sue - your tears messages resound with me," writes another subscriber. "I am still the primary caregiver for my 93 year old mother. She has regressed terribly fast. I have quit my part time job. I am always seeking God's direction on how best to adapt her home into her private nursing home. She can no longer [...]
Good morning… A well-loved subscriber from Jacksonville, Florida often sends me words of loving encouragement. This week she sent me the 5.4.17 blog of Maureen Ahearn Cully entitled "Begin with the End in Mind." I resonate with these words as our oldest son graduates from college today and my youngest daughter graduates from high school next Sunday. I am [...]
Good morning... When I googled the term "semi-permeable boundaries" for yesterday's post, I happened upon this article by Dr. Neill Neill entitled: "Personal Boundaries and Healthy Relationships." The wisdom shared here is very important as we consider how we are made in the image of God and empowered by the Holy Spirit to follow in Jesus' footsteps into healthy [...]
Good morning... When I was training in my twenties to be a Marriage and Family Therapist, I learned a lot about boundaries. Some families have rigid boundaries. Secrets and unresolved pain grow like weeds in the petri dish of a closed system. Some families are open systems, where anything goes all the time, stripping members of privacy and protection. [...]
Good morning... Through a series of mishaps, we met in the grocery store parking lot, me loading my trunk, she driving up in her SUV. I was delayed since I went back for a few items I had forgotten my first time through the check out line. "Ugh." She had forgotten to take home some items she had purchased, [...]
