Good morning... Last week at their senior living community, my dad performed the role of "Tommy-O, the elf" and my mom was his happy sidekick. What a fun photo! This week, my mom is recovering in a hospital room near my hometown of Berea, Ohio. On Christmas Eve, she was not herself, exhausted and lethargic. The ambulance came [...]
Good morning... On my way to church to work the second shift of worship services on Christmas Eve, I enjoyed dropping off a container of homemade soup for a feverish friend who was home sick with COVID. I love making and sharing soup regularly. The thick, rich smells. The warm wafting comfort. This week's one-of-a-kind concoction included boiled [...]
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I scroll through photos I snapped last month while visiting my parents in Ohio. As my mom and I went on a walk through the welcoming sidewalks of their senior living community, I took the picture above at one of her favorite resting spots on a bench outside the [...]
Good morning... I love hanging up Christmas cards from people we have made memories with over the years. One of my favorites from this season is the smiling faces of the DeShelter family, a close-knit family who has recently endured two rounds of Audrey's risky radioactive cancer treatment at Children's Healthcare of Philadelphia. Thriving through it all, don't [...]
Good morning... A dear friend regularly drops off poems in my mailbox at Northside Church. He slipped in a few important ones this week, poems I picked up following yesterday's loving funeral. These words struck me as essential for this day, for these challenging times, for this unique season of life. [...]
Good morning... "We heal what we feel," said Ron Greer, author of The Quiet House. I felt a lot when my dad said last night, "Today, I got a tree at Loews." Together, we reminisced about our annual trek around a tree farm as a family, cutting down our favorite Christmas bush (it was always wider than it [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was a very long day. 7:00 am: I spoke by phone with my mom, my dad, and my sister in the hospital waiting room. As mom was wheeled back for her five to six hour surgery, "We love you," filled her ears, her mind, and her heart. 12:15 pm, my dad's first text came: "She went [...]
Good morning... The wordless prayer card above sits beside me in the living room as I write. The man depicted looks so much like my dad reading the paper at the kitchen table in their sunny Ohio villa. "Good Life," the main heading in the newspaper, is something my parents have enjoyed for 85 and 86 years. The [...]
Good morning... This has never happened to me before. I spent diligent time discerning our morning message in the middle of yesterday's dark night, then I unconsciously drifted to sleep on the couch where I write. I woke, climbed in bed, woke again, then headed into a very full day. "We didn't get your blog today," my dad [...]
Good morning... At eighty-five years old, my mom is beaming, buoyant, beautiful. She has pushed through really tough medical challenges these past few years. With her moving through the ICU twice, I have paid close attention to one of my favorite poets who has recently been writing about her own mother in the ICU. Her mom also has [...]
