Good morning... I wake early on this difficult day, preparing my heart for this morning's funeral. In the sacred stillness of these wee hours, I savor the obituary of Dobbs Davie. Crossing over to heaven on Mother's Day, Dobbs was just twenty years old. I look at his handsome picture and can see remnants of the little boy [...]
Good morning... Waking after a full night's sleep, I cozy up on the couch and think, "Healing is happening." God invites me forward from yesterday's post, My Unexpected Grief. I return to the wise book sustaining me very personally during this season of Lent, Paula D'Arcy's Winter of the Heart: Finding Your Way Through the Mystery of Grief. [...]
Good morning... It was hard to leave Ohio with my mother in the ICU. I had a meaningful visit with my parents and siblings, but I was deeply concerned about my mom's condition. On my final morning with her, the nurse asked her where she was and my mom replied, "I am at the Renaissance (the retirement community [...]
Good morning... It is as if we have endured two long years of winter, holed up inside this worldwide pandemic. Signs of spring are starting to show. Buds of new life are bursting free. As many of you know, for years we have hosted at Northside Church our annual Women’s Lenten Communion Service the Tuesday night before Ash [...]
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I explore various accounts of the skiing accident that took the life of 27-year-old Rad Spencer who grew up in our Atlanta community. Along with our oldest son and his Lovett friends, Rad and his buddies from Westminster went through confirmation, Sunday school, and youth group together. Celebrating his [...]
Good morning... "Look at the little monument God inspired me to tuck amid the ferns you taught me to grow outside our wooden gate," I texted my friend who will lay to rest her forty-three year old son today. "This little resting angel is a symbol of him living on with God, just beyond the open window of [...]
Good morning... This encouraging video was created last April by our author for this semester, Paula D'Arcy, and her seasoned spiritual friend, Khris Ford. Well worth five minutes of our time, the insights shared may be helpful for those personally struggling through grief and for those seeking to walk beside a loved one who is slowly trudging through. [...]
Good morning... Author Paula D'Arcy knows the upending sensation of sudden loss. Before diving into Paula's book Sacred Threshold: Crossing the Inner Barrier to Deeper Love, I read aloud to our class a few pages from her first book, Gift of the Red Bird, written in 1996. Listen to the healing heart of the wise woman who guides [...]
Good morning... In our post We Need Friends, I shared about our grieving friend who lost her first grandchild to a miscarriage. "Oh my!" one reader wrote from South Carolina. "God is surely speaking in stereo AGAIN. My heart hurt and my eyes pricked with tears this morning when I read about your class participant’s loss. In 2012 [...]
Good morning... He was in my youngest daughter's high school graduating class. She's now twenty-two, he, twenty-three. This morning we will go to his funeral at the school where the kids attended and both of his parents have taught for years. As friend, colleague and school chaplain, my husband will officiate while I am quietly present, bearing witness [...]
