Good morning... I melt into tears as I finally have a quiet moment to savor your many loving texts and emails following yesterday's post. Thank you for responding with such love, care, and support as our community grieves yet another shocking loss. Up the road from Northside Church, in the St. Philips community of faith, a similar story [...]
Good morning... The sun rises today to host a funeral for a father. Let me tell you of the days leading up to this morning. Our 17-year-old son brought a good friend with us on spring break in Florida, and on the second evening of our vacation this friend got a call from his mother in Atlanta. The [...]
Good morning... "Sue, this is great!" she wrote after yesterday's post. "It surely speaks of me and to me. I've written the opening paragraph on a 'stick-um' and put it on the mirror on my dresser as a simple reminder each day." BE HERE - BE NOW - BE PRESENT NOT IN PAST NOT IN FUTURE [...]
Good morning... "I'll have a Blue Christmas without you," Elvis Presley sang into our hearts with his 1964 single, the year after I was born. As I have aged into deeper awareness, I wonder, "When people lose loved ones during the holiday season, is Christmas always tainted with the blue of grief?" Something within me feels an answer [...]
Good morning... Two Fridays ago loved ones packed the place, celebrating the life of a young man who died on his nineteenth birthday. Friends and family members shared stories, tearful and touching, funny and full-of-life. One of the minsters urged us to trust this truth: "Nothing is lost that love remembers." The other minister, my husband, told the [...]
Good morning... Re-editing our post from a few days ago, I stick in a strange new word that somehow feels right. Viscerally. I am drawn to add viscerally (touch "Previous. Previous." above to revisit this message). The sentence now reads: "My gut viscerally felt like the knotted debris still littering the roads after Hurricane Michael." I google this foreign-to-me [...]
Good morning... Still. Still. Still. It is the day after our Savior's birth. As dawn breaks again into our darkness, how are we to be guided by God's inextinguishable Light? This morning, I am drawn back into the pages of my friend Lisa's book to discern the practical nature of the Light piercing the extreme darkness caused by [...]
Good morning... "God has shown me that the light within me cannot be extinguished," wrote our friend Mary as she grieves the loss of her son, "but there are times when it will be faint, and other times when it will burn bright. The Holy Spirit, the light, is always there within! He shows me that there is [...]
Good morning... "I must admit that I am THANKFUL to have another Thanksgiving behind me," a subscriber from Charlotte, N.C. writes as she grieves the loss of her young adult son. "Yesterday was tough, and also were the days leading up to it. The anticipation alone puts me in a state of angst, frustration, sadness and anger, all [...]
Good morning... At ages eight and eighty-one, my mom and dad diligently dismantled their home this fall to leave Berea, Ohio on November 1st. Having thrived in our hometown for fifty-something years, this morning they wake up in an unfamiliar two bedroom, two bath villa about twenty-five minutes away. I sensed the imminent move last spring when my [...]
