Good morning... Gone. Eerie. Devastating. These are just a few of the words traveling from Florida's panhandle through our TV screens. Shattering. Twisting. Splintering. Aerial images of Mexico Beach show the ravages of Hurricane Michael. Power out. War zone. Ground zero. At ground zero, our lives are reduced to rubble. From the raw wreckage, we stumble into the first [...]
Good morning... As I write it is dark, it is wet, it is windy, with Georgia being the second state in Hurricane Michael's path. When light dawns on this day, what widespread devastation will be revealed? Whatever we face, we face together with God. Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step [...]
Good morning... One week ago today as a class we celebrated National Gratitude Day. Quietly thinking of all the things for which we are grateful, we lit candles and dripped multi-colored wax onto a centerpiece of broken shells adorning the coffee table in our living room. As wax dripped down, voices of women raised up. "I am grateful [...]
Good morning... Last Monday our class had a "Cousin Itt" experience with Paula D'Arcy's Seeking With All My Heart. Overwhelmed by wild-haired emotions and immersed in concepts way over our heads, we could not see truth with our individual eyes, so collectively we expressed, "I did not get that chapter at all." "Paula's understanding is way beyond mine." [...]
Good morning... After a recent morning post, one of my favorite people in the world shared with me a poem that touched me deeply. The words I love most beg a startling question: "With the presence of flaws in the grain at our core, what face will we show the world today?" ****** David Whyte's "The Faces at [...]
Good morning... So deeply loving her book Gift Of The Red Bird, I joined author Paula D'Arcy for a weekend at Ignatius House Retreat Center in August of 2015. Many who had loved boldly and lost abruptly came to be with this vibrant woman, a woman who was not only standing, breathing, and living on after the 1975 death [...]
Good morning... When we moved into the tiny, Pennsylvania town-of-my-dreams in the third week of June in 2001, our kids were six, four, two, and two weeks old. As God had planned our placement perfectly, my next door neighbor, Betsy, was also nurturing a two year old and a two week old. Betsy and I became fast, deep-seeded [...]
Good morning... You know I wake up whenever God wakes me. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught (Isaiah 50:4b, NIV). First things first. I brew a few mugs of coffee, I curl up in silent solitude, and, with a great sense of expectancy, I open my Bible, my journal, [...]
Good morning... As I wake on this lazy Labor Day weekend, what is the strange word tickling the tip of my brain's tongue? "Hiatus." I google the meaning of "hiatus" and a plethora of possibility pours forth. A pause in a series, sequence, or process. A break. An intermission. A lull, respite, breather. I learn that in Latin [...]
Good morning... I enjoy periodic movie nights with my close friend. Last month we saw Manchester by the Sea and last night we experienced Moonlight. Both movies are heavy and heartbreaking, painful and poignant, raw and redemptive. After each movie, my friend and I talked for hours, untangling jumbled thoughts, expressing myriad emotions, connecting insightful dots. "The purpose of [...]
