"Morning my friends!" A dear friend texted two of us yesterday morning. "Thank you for the loving, supportive, tenacious way you embody this paradox - wise words from the amazing Suleika Jaouad!" Living means learning to hold the astonishingly beautiful and unbearably hard things in the same palm. In the process of living, we experience the powerful paradox [...]
Good morning... The eternal life of two faithful women have passed through to the other side. Dictionary.com explains: "A matriarch is the female head of a family, tribe, clan, or organization, or a respected and influential senior woman." This month, Northside Church is missing from our midst two gifted matriarchs. On October 11th, we celebrated the 88 vibrant [...]
Good morning... Most of us start the day with preconceived plans. More likely than not, our plans will be interrupted. The quote above, sent by a friend last week, helps to shift our focus from, "Why, God, why?" to "Who?" and to "What?" In the Plan B moments we meet today, might we stop and wonder and learn, [...]
Good morning... In the morning, I took a walk through the fertile forest of fallen trees. I told you in yesterday's post, "New forms of life were sprouting up everywhere!" In the afternoon, we gathered for our session in The Upper Room, the amazing new building on the campus of the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Our retreat leaders [...]
Good morning... As I walked the mile long trail around the Ignatius House Retreat Center, I noticed the restorative beauty of the fallen trees. Though the keepers of the sacred grounds clear the rugged paths, they allow the decaying debris to naturally rest on the fertile forest floor. Like meandering through a mysterious museum, I marveled at the [...]
Good morning... Following the past two posts about the DeShelters missing their daughter Audrey, who went to heaven ten hours before her twentieth birthday, a friend from Florida emailed me. "Good morning Sue," she wrote. "I cannot imagine what Jennifer and Ben are facing as parents. Blessedly God surrounds us with angels here on earth to comfort and [...]
Good morning... As the moon thickens above our home, I think back on our sacred weekend at the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Abiding in the quietness of now, I pull out my hand-scribbled notes. I return to the first quote shared on Friday night, the first teaching, the first song. "I remind myself that we are never promised [...]
Good morning... Several people wrote to me after yesterday's blog post, a post highlighting the ever-widening Circle of Love sparked by the life of Christian mystic Betty Skinner. Many of you wondered, "Is there a required registration for Dr. Cathy Snapp's talk?" (See flyer above.) I wondered that myself, so I reached out to the organizers and learned [...]
Good morning... During the last week of my summer break, I spent time in Athens, GA with our eleven week old grandson Charlie. Our son was away with work for four days and our daughter-in-law had a big, important job as a wedding florist, so I came into town to care for Charlie. It all sounded like a [...]
Good morning... This week, two friends are heading into surgery. They will step through the anxious uncertainty to arrive on the other side ready to heal into wholeness. Right away, God's healing power will be actively at work. Hang on to that thread. This week, two of my dear friends will be going through divorce mediation. The dream [...]
