Good morning... I am prayerfully considering which book to teach in our living room next fall, in small groups, sitting six feet apart. With a short stack of possibilities, I read through piles of pages. At the right moment, I trust the Holy Spirit to nudge, "Sue, this is the one I have chosen." "When the sun goes [...]
Good morning... Today is Senior Sunday at our church, an annual celebration of the high school seniors raised by our church family. Every year, I love to flip through the traditional glossy trifold bulletin announcing the name, the high school, and the college of choice for each fresh graduating face. This unusual year, I noticed three changes right [...]
Good morning... As I cleaned out my home office over the weekend, I came across a year-long calendar of quotes from various writers, two inches thick, a bit larger than a 3x5 card. The spiral bound gift, given a long while back, rested open to these words from July 4th. "In the black night, I listened to His [...]
Good morning... "I'm up praying for you and yours," I texted in the middle of the night. "Any new baby news?" God had stirred me awake to pray for a friend whose grand baby was due any day. "Good morn!" came her return text at 8:58 am. "She was born yesterday and all went well. I have been [...]
Good morning... A friend sent me beautiful words shared by her church on Sunday. Instead of the traditional "Passing the Peace" portion of worship, during this season of social distancing her church family is developing a new habit called "Passing Our Prayers." ****** Today's prayer comes from Elizabeth Shows Caffey: Now I say to you in conclusion, life [...]
Good morning... As I walked our golden retriever mix to and from the horse farm, on my way back I noticed a young girl. Slender build. Brown hair. About ten or twelve years old. Walking in the opposite direction on the other side of the street. She was holding a large basket in the crook on one arm. [...]
Good morning... "Nature is not a place to visit. It is home," says Gary Snyder in The Practice of the Wild. This quiet quote appears today on the cool dog calendar a friend gave me for my birthday. As we in the state of Georgia receive the new detailed directive to "shelter in place," this is the perfect morning [...]
Good morning... I have been with people as they have taken their last breath. Sacred. Surreal. The eternal spirit leaves the still body. Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over. Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends. The body is put back in the same ground it came from. The spirit returns to God, who [...]
Good morning... To end our Zoom gathering, he gently read to us a poem, a poem I had never met. ****** The Peace of Wild Things by Wendell Berry When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may [...]
Good morning... "Darkness - with its numbness, loneliness, and shame - very often accompanies a deep spiritual journey and can be the means to the knowledge of both God and self," says ninety-four-year-old Betty Skinner. "The freedom to love and be loved is often discovered in the darkness, so it is important to befriend it." Betty continues: "If [...]
