Good morning... "When songwriting team Burt Bacharach and Hal David released the song 'What the World Needs Now Is Love' (originally sung by Jackie DeShannon) in 1965, the United States was deeply divided over the war in Vietnam," explains the Berklee Now publication from March 23rd. "Bacharach was initially nervous about the song's reception given the fragile cultural [...]
Good morning... I have been with people as they have taken their last breath. Sacred. Surreal. The eternal spirit leaves the still body. Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over. Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends. The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who [...]
Good morning... How do we bridge the gap between "the haves and have nots" during this extended period of pandemic? Prayerfully with God, we travel the avenues blazed before our feet. We simply travel the avenues of connection opening before us. Our family provides just one example, your family provides another, and each stranger we scooch by in the [...]
Good morning... "Hi, Sue," she responds. "You ask what creative gifts give us strength during this season of sequestering." Artist, photographer, and dear, dear friend Corinne Adams shares with me her intriguing art while we are held apart: "I have discovered my own Walden’s pond in the woods next door. The “pond,” an abandoned swimming pool filled with [...]
Good morning... Unable to gather for our weekly class, she and I walked around the public park. We found our place into the spacious stream of smiling people and friendly dogs. During this strange season of social distancing, it was the perfect way to unpack our deep thoughts. Slow. Soulful. Simple. After finishing our sunny stroll she said, [...]
Good morning... A friend sent me this poem written by a woman I probably will not meet until our souls see each other in heaven. ****** Pandemic What if you thought of it as the Jews consider the Sabbath— the most sacred of times? Cease from travel. Cease from buying and selling. Give up, just for now, on [...]
Good morning... "Darkness - with its numbness, loneliness, and shame - very often accompanies a deep spiritual journey and can be the means to the knowledge of both God and self," says ninety-four-year-old Betty Skinner. "The freedom to love and be loved is often discovered in the darkness, so it is important to befriend it." Betty continues: "If [...]
Good morning... "Oh Sue, do not beat yourself up," she wrote after yesterday's relatable post, My Stupid Decision. "Paul Tripp writes we are never 'grace graduates' and how blessed we are for that never ending hope." We are never "grace graduates." The phrase captures my curiosity. We never graduate from God's School of Grace. Life continually offers us advanced [...]
Good morning... I made a poor choice and paid the price. On the spectrum of stupid decisions, mine was pretty tame, but gratefully it gave me a small taste of embarrassing shame. My mistake set my mind wondering. How do people get out of bed the morning after a devastating affair is exposed, a preventable accident brings permanent [...]
Good morning... Watching a news story, I pulled out a blank piece of paper and jotted down four strong words. "Hate." "Hurt." "Hope." "Heal." Coupled together, they form opposite ends of the continuum upon which our daily life teeters. Hate/Hurt..........................Hope/Heal It is important to ask ourselves, moment by moment, "Which magnetic pull is grabbing my full attention?" God’s [...]
