Good morning... Today is my parents' 62nd wedding anniversary. After dinner at the dining hall last night, I snapped this picture of them as couple #28, front and center, in the wedding photo contest currently being held at their senior living community. When the photo was taken, my mom was twenty-two and my dad was twenty-three, college sweethearts [...]
Good morning... After a full night's sleep, I wake in the guest room of my parent's villa in the Renaissance senior living community near my hometown of Berea, Ohio. The walls here are filled with pictures our of our extended family growing up over the years. Two of my favorite photo collages live in this room, a frame [...]
Good morning... After seventeen years of dating and fifteen years of living together, yesterday was the incredibly special night our neighbors wed. We enjoy living across the street from Joe and JoAnn. She and I particularly share a similar zest for life, and we love giving random gifts to one another as the Spirit moves. Earlier in the [...]
Good morning... A few weeks back, I went to an art class led by a friend who is also a spiritual director. We were asked to bring along photos to incorporate into a collage. After an opening prayer, she slowly read aloud Psalm 139:13-16 from the Message translation, centering our attention and inviting us to choose words or [...]
Good morning... In the early hours of last Saturday, I wrote My Hope For These Twenty Year Olds. I pushed "send" on our blog post around 3:00 am then crawled back into bed for my second sleep. When I woke again, I revisiting our message, tweaking it a bit, like I often do. I did not alter the [...]
Good morning... As our son and a full row of twenty-year-old friends watched their classmates paying tribute at their best friend's funeral, I wondered to myself, "Lord, in what ways is your Spirit sinking into their hearts? How are you helping these young adults to process this unexpected loss? Somehow, some way, is your comforting presence becoming more [...]
Good morning... I am deeply touched by the bittersweet nature of Mother's Day this year. I feel the sweetness of my mom coming back to life after being on a ventilator in the Ohio ICU. Wow, what a joy to celebrate! I also feel the bitter of old friends, a mom and a grandmother, with whom I am [...]
Good morning... Last month I was joyfully reunited in Jacksonville, Florida with friends and family of Betty Skinner to honor the memory of our beloved spiritual mentor. Betty is the down to earth Christian mystic at the center of The Hidden Life Awakened by authors Dr. Cathy Snapp (in the UGA hat) and Kitty Crenshaw (pictured above Cathy). [...]
Good morning... The joy of this Mother's Day week is already picking up speed. Our artistic friend Corinne Adams is also a dedicated homework helper at PAWkids, the non-profit downtown where several of us are enjoying quality time. Corinne is in the process of photographing all of the twenty kids in the after school enrichment program. Look at [...]
Good morning... Along with a baby blue golf shirt to match the color of his eyes, I gave me father a tiny yellow birthday gift. Pictured above, I gave him a small symbol of the love I see him sharing tenderly with my mother, his wife for over sixty years. Two little ceramic birds leaning into each other. [...]
