Good morning... Traveling with my husband Steve to a destination wedding he was officiating, I had no idea I would be completely unplugged. In our quaint, quiet cottage, we had no wi-fi, no internet, no cell service, no television. That meant no blog posts created for our written word community on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I was forced [...]
Good morning... "Kaitlyn passed away," read yesterday's early morning text from our 26-year-old daughter. Since Kaitlyn's car accident on New Year's Eve, we have all been praying diligently for her healing. She was put into a medically induced coma to relieve the pressure on her brain. It seems that, as the doctors tried to wean her off the [...]
Good morning... "It was often very tender and sometimes sore over the holidays," she texted about her grieving heart. "Longing. Causing plenty of tears of remembering and of grief over not enough life shared. All the family went away together and had a loving and kind respite. It was honest and a loving time. We let each other [...]
Good morning... On December 26th, I love being the first awake in a quiet home full of sleeping people. I brew a 12-cup pot of our family's favorite coffee, fill up my personal "COMFORT" mug, and nestle beneath the fuzzy blanket with our smallest furry dog. Surveying the situation, my eyes pick up the mounds of "mess" strewn [...]
Good morning... A gorgeous table was set for our fun feast of friendship. As we gathered together our hearts sat in solidarity with one friend who was away visiting with her son and her 37-year-old daughter-in-law, a young couple bravely battling Elizabeth's advanced colon cancer. From our book Simple Faith [...]
Good morning... Pitching in to make a feast, our family of six relaxed around the Thanksgiving table. Small circles of family and friends support each of us every day, do our hearts savor the love? We share meals, we share stories, we share an evolving history. We share time, we share gifts, we share words of encouragement. We [...]
Good morning... "The whole person is involved when we give thanks from our hearts," says Br. David Steindl-Rast. As I wake early this Thanksgiving morn, my heart is saturated with gratitude. I am grateful for small, simple pleasures - a furry blanket and cozy socks that hug my feet just right. I am grateful for my husband and [...]
Good morning... "Sarah Patterson French of Atlanta, Georgia was a devoted mother, dependable friend, and loving wife," begins her obituary. Surrounded by her family who loved her dearly, she passed away on October 23, 2022, at the age of 50, following a short but valiant fight against cancer." "Sarah's primary and most loved role was mother to her [...]
Good morning... At 4:18 am she emailed me after reading our post Grief Strips Us Naked. "Sue," she wrote. "These are wonderful passages spoken by those whose grief walked them to new understanding. In a few hours, at dawn‘s break, we will say goodbye to our brown eyed girl, our 13 year old lab. As a part of [...]
Good morning... Most of us have heard that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the fight became deeply personal for me when I received a text from a friend on October 12th at 7:34 am. "Thank you for your message this morning, Courage Is Rekindled," she wrote. "God spoke to me through you in a mighty way! [...]
