Good morning... Very graciously she said to me, "I don't want to open your blog and hear about negative stuff happening in your community. Cancer. Suicide. Tragedy after tragedy. I have enough hurting people struggling around me. I don't need your painful experiences piling on mine, dragging me down. I read your morning messages hoping to be inspired, [...]
Good morning... Praying aloud in front of a crowd, Jesus said to our Father: "Now I'm returning to you. I'm saying these things in the world's hearing so my people can experience my joy completed in them" (John 17:13, MSG). It is an incredible thing to think the joy we experience in our everyday lives is actually the [...]
Good morning... How can you not laugh when someone you love says, "I just woke up one morning and my front teeth were gone. I have no idea where they went!" 93-year-old Betty Skinner looked like a jolly jack-o-lantern the week before Halloween. On Saturday morning we talked for a few hours in Betty's nursing home room, which [...]
Good morning... Our home is filled with artwork created by people I know and love. Margo Boden. Our children. Steve Penley. Gina MacFarland. Sally Mitchell. The one artist who graces our home most often with her beautiful creations is painter, photographer, and philantropist Corrine Adams. One-of-a-kind photographs. Funky seed creations. Transparent bottles filled with cool sayings. Unique jewelry, [...]
Good morning... "We all try to do what seems like the task that life first hands us," writes Richard Rohr, "establishing an identity, a home, relationships, community, security, and building a proper platform for our only life." This is a good place for all of us to begin. Rohr continues: "But it takes us much longer to discover [...]
Good morning... I crossed my legs and closed my eyes as she privately read aloud to me an excerpt from Nan Merrill's paraphrase of Psalm 106. ****** May we become bearers of joy, we who are invited to share in the Cosmic Dance! We pray for the gift of wisdom, that the motivations of our heart might be [...]
Good morning... It is bittersweet for me to help craft words for the final email sent out to our August Enneagram class. Included here are the notes from last week's teaching, the focus for this week's lesson, and a link to register for fall classes at Northside Church, which begin the week of September 9th. What a joy [...]
Good morning... "I wanted to share this lovely article I just received on dolce far niente ... the sweet art of doing nothing," she texted after reading our recent message, The Magic Of Play. "It fits so well with your blog post this morning, Sue." Again, God's perfect timing multiples our joy. ****** Excerpts from The Importance of Doing Nothing: [...]
Good morning... "In Christ's name we play," my Freudian slip sparking an avalanche of joy. After crafting yesterday's post, The Magic of Play, I watched different forms of play emerge all day. I walked, instead of driving, to the home of a woman new to our Friday class roster, enjoying fresh coffee and conversation. I walk and talked [...]
Good morning... "In Christ's name we play," my Freudian slip ended our prayer, ushering us into a magical evening. "Researcher Stuart Brown, MD, describes play as time spent without purpose," Brene Brown stretches her own mind to welcome this new possibility. "To me this sounds like the definition of an anxiety attack. I feel behind if I’m not [...]
