Good morning... As I held the soft hands of 91 year old Betty Skinner, she said something like this, "Sue, I really love this season in my life. There is little I need to do each day. I have many hours to pray, to read, to commune with God. This is a sweet, sweet season. But I must tell [...]
As I held the soft hands of 91 year old Betty Skinner, she said something like this, "Sue, I really love this season in my life. There is little I need to do each day. I have many hours to pray, to read, to commune with God. This is a sweet, sweet season. But I must tell you, I [...]
Good morning... Yesterday Ben DeShetler's Caring Bridge post was short, simple, smiling: "Still NED! In case you haven't heard, Audrey is still NED!!! We are still waiting on the bone marrow results but they said probably not to worry. I'll post more later as I find out." On 4.13.17, my "Fab 5 friends" post told the story of my [...]
Good morning... My forever writer-friend emailed me. "Loved your post about tweaking your final tweet. We are in constant edit mode, aren't we, as we listen harder, hear more? Reading a book of poems called A Maze Me: Poems for Girls by Naomi Shihab Nye this morning and loved this one. I thought you would, too. ****** Because of [...]
Good morning... I am grateful for technology, for the ability to communicate with loved ones near and far. I will keep forever the beautiful string of texts Julie Harlan and I shared privately over the final thirty-eight days of her life. I scroll through the eighty-five text messages exchanged and I smile, so grateful for my friend. Some texts [...]
Good morning... "Beautiful young people are accidents of nature," said Eleanor Roosevelt. "But beautiful old people are works of art." Last week, I shared my birthday lunch with beautiful 91 year old Betty Skinner. She truly is a work of art. Kitty Crenshaw and Dr. Cathy Snapp, authors of The Hidden Life Awakened, the book chronicling Betty's extraordinary life, [...]
Good morning... Time is a gift. Do we know this truth deeply, in the pit of our soul? Some events in life become wisdom's unexpected teachers. Like surviving an accident or slowly healing after tragedy. Like expecting a newborn or being bedside with a dying loved one. Like last year's cancer diagnosis stunning our friend Lara and the wisdom [...]
Good morning... Yesterday as a family, we donned disposable hair nets with plastic aprons and gloves to assemble meals for the homeless through Hosea Feed the Hungry. For the first year of this annual Christmas tradition, I left feeling badly about the gift we had given. To me, the meals we served in styrofoam boxes felt unfair and inconsistent. [...]
Good morning... As I sat in dense, inching traffic at 5:45 pm, I felt gratitude gradually grow. With the winter sun setting early, I was unexpectedly stopped, stilled in awe. I watched God at work, painting playful pastels in the evening sky. Had I focused my eyes on the bumper to bumper frustration, anger and anxiety would have welled [...]
Good morning... Two emails came to me simultaneously. One simply said, 'GR8FUL,' indicating the single word one subscriber would put on her license plate. The other subscriber wrote, "I have found the grief to begin to loosen its grip on me as my gratitude catches up with the sadness. Eventually all I am left with is gratitude, love and [...]
