Good morning... I cannot unplug from Richard Rohr's quote in Falling Upward: "As Desmond Tutu told me on a recent trip to Cape Town, 'We are only the light bulbs, Richard, and our job is just to remain screwed in!'" (ix) Jesus says a similar thing, "Remain in Me, and I [will remain] in you...for [otherwise] apart from Me [that [...]
Good morning... As I turned on the news I quickly opened my journal. From an interview with the rabbi whose California synagogue was attacked by a gunman, deep hurt and deeper hope splattered quotes on my page. There is a war out there between darkness and light. America is a nation who believes in God. Celebrating our religious [...]
Good morning... You are like me. Imperfect. Improving. Intimately to connected to God, Self, and others. As an online community, we bring our whole selves out from the isolating dark, where negatives develop, into the light of God's redeeming love. I enjoy taking time on Sundays to savor where we have been, reviewing the spiritual baby steps we [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's sermon, our 17-year-old son said, "I really liked the preacher's story about the boy in his youth group who said, 'If you ever feel like snuffing out your light, don't. The world is dark enough.'" I agreed. That was my favorite takeaway too. Then in the afternoon, I opened an email from a friend, an [...]
Good morning... "Supposed to be nearing 80-degrees today, so our 4:00 pm lacrosse game will be a scorcher!" yesterday I texted my parents and sister who each live in small towns near Cleveland, Ohio. "Enjoy your Saturday. What are you all up to?" "Track meet got rained out today and it's supposed to snow tomorrow," my sister replied. [...]
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... "Be where your feet are," our pastor said in his sermon on Sunday. Be not in the past. Be not in the future. Be here. Be now. Be present. He admits, "This is really hard for me, to be where my feet are." I suspect we all battle the same human tendency, to obsess about the [...]
Good morning... "I said to my soul, be still, and wait . . . So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing." This T.S. Eliot quote begins our new book for the semester, When The Heart Waits by Sue Monk Kidd. "What does this quote mean?" we wondered aloud as a class. Now I [...]
Good morning... Each sabbath we take a day to rest and review lessons we have learned together in our everyday blog. As the curtain opens on 2019, we are wise to look back, securing our bearings, before seeking and sensing: "God, what's next?" Using the "Previous." link above this message, savor again the inner terrain we have explored [...]
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 [...]
