Good morning... This Memorial Day weekend, my 88 year old dad drove nearly four hours to lay geraniums at the foot of my grandparents' grave. This annual tradition of remembrance was foregone for a few years as my mom's health issues took precedence, but this weekend my sister stayed with my mom and my dad drove on his [...]
Good morning... "Tommy died yesterday," her text came into our group at 8:02 am. "He has gone to 'green pastures' as Margaret describes." "Thank you for letting us know," I was the first to respond. "What a bittersweet journey. I will keep Margaret and the family tucked in my prayers." Then short responses cascaded into my phone. "He [...]
Good morning... "I loved this and thought you would too!" a friend texted me this image at 7:36 am. "God spoke in flowers today, and I, who was looking for words, almost missed the conversation," said the quote from Ingrid Goff-Maidoff. My friend is right, I loved it, a wise way to begin a new day. Then at [...]
Good morning... Julie Harlan smiles in heaven as she prepares for today's special day. Today, her oldest son Charlie will graduate from The Lovett School with a stadium full of his classmates. When Charlie was ten, his amazing mom died of stomach cancer at age forty-one. It's an honor to remember her bright shining spirit and to revisit [...]
Happy Mother's Day... After sharing photos from my dad's 88th birthday party last week, one friend wrote me a very kind email. "Sue, did you know that you and your mom both have a physical glow about you that comes from the inside?" she wrote. "I've begun to notice that [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's post, Our Dog Has Cancer, I responded to twenty four loving texts about Tate's diagnosis and twenty encouraging emails. Each kind word exchanged added weight to my ballast, that deep down place where inner strength settles. One email in particular helped me to envision the unknown path ahead. ****** Good morning ☀️ I have [...]
Good morning... Our dog Tate came to us from Adopt-a-Golden at eight weeks old. That was nine years ago this month. At the time, our youngest son had just gotten his driver's permit, our youngest daughter was finishing her junior year in high school, and our oldest two were in college, one finishing her freshman year at Ole [...]
Good morning... The down-to-earth words of Kate Bowler come into my inbox every Wednesday. Kate is a professor at Duke Divinity School, a writer, a podcaster, and a cancer survivor. Yesterday, Kate shared with me, and millions of her regular blog readers, this tender word of encouragement. ****** Dear Sue, Is it just me, or does May always [...]
Good morning... Enjoying a short visit with my parents in Ohio, I ran across a half page paper on a table in their villa. Reading the words out loud to myself, I thought, "An oak tree. What a wonderful symbol of my parents as people." At ages 88 and almost 87, [...]
Good morning... Three of us friends often send each other encouraging Scriptures or prayer requests, so it was not unusual for us to receive her text at 7:14 am on Easter Monday morning. ****** “That’s why my heart celebrates and my mood is joyous; yes, my whole body will rest in safety because you won’t abandon my life [...]
