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 [...]
Happy Thanksgiving morn... You simply must give yourself at least a few-second-gift of this peaceful video passed along to me by a dear, wise friend. https://www.google.com/search?q=hamster+eating+carrot+in+blanket&rlz=1CDGOYI_ enUS711US711&oq=hamster+eating+carrot+in+blanket&aqs=chrome..69i57.15735j0j9&hl=en-US&sourceid=chrome-mobile&ie=UTF-8 If this hamster could speak english, she might encourage us this day, "Hold with your two bare hands the slice of life given to you today. Remember you are blanketed in God's [...]
Good morning... A friend was a no-show at a planned breakfast. The day after I received the following email. "I am heartsick I forgot our time together as I longed for it. I got my wires crossed because I am on overload and this flew out of my head. (She went on to explain the colliding details which helped [...]
Good morning... Regrets ruin. The unsaid undermines. When the moment is lost, so is the opportunity. As spring fades to summer, my unsaid regrets linger. I have lost an opportunity. I feel convicted to say "I am sorry" for two things this spring. First, in March, I went on two spring break trips back to back. One week to [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, our youngest child had his last Middle School Field Day. This is one thing I have learned from raising our four kids: savoring "lasts" along the way is an essential key to enjoying life. Following spring football practice the night before, I picked up a carload of eighth grade boys. After dropping a few kids home [...]
Good morning... "OK REALLY??" she wrote after reading my blog post yesterday. "I am not kidding - this is the devotional I read first today (as I was awaiting yours) and then... I get the cherry on top, the COULD HAVE HAD A V8! I just love it. God is so good. To give me a double dose of how [...]
