Good morning... I notice a little moonlight shining through the slots in the shutters to grace our bedroom wall. Quietly, I move into another room, turning on a light in the midst of this dark night. I revisit a letter forwarded to me this week by a dear, dear friend. The ministerial staff at the First Presbyterian Church [...]
Good morning... As we came in from the sunny winter cold to celebrate a friend's 80th birthday with our Thursday morning class, I received photos from Ohio. "We have about 5" of snow and most schools are closed," my dad texted. "It's much worse in the snow belt east of Cleveland." "Snow days off school," was one thing [...]
Good morning... Much of this season we have spent stuck in a soupy, cloudy haze. Unable to see our collective truth clearly, the human experience of many has matched the gloomy weather. The characteristic blue sunny skies of the south have been covered over by grey. With sunshine feeling rare, I have missed the patches of winter light [...]
Good morning... What Is Your Star Word? we asked in yesterday's post, a single word guiding you into the living presence of the Christ child, Emmanuel, God-with-us. For 2026, my star word is SIMPLIFY. The Dictionary.com definition reads: "to make less complicated, clearer, or easier." Clarify. Cut down. Reduce. Shorten. Streamline. SIMPLIFY. We live in a complicated world [...]
Good morning... In yesterday's post We Experience Epiphany, I shared the spiritual practice of choosing a star word to guide us into the new year. Journalist Marissa Hermanson explains, "Star words are given out to the congregation in early January on Epiphany Sunday as a way of remembering the story of the Magi following the star to find [...]
Good morning... On January 6th, on the twelfth day of Christmas, Epiphany is celebrated annually. Epiphany commemorates the visit of the Magi to the Christ Child and the revelation of God the Son experienced as a human being. We read the story at church on Sunday. As I revisit Matthew 2:1-12, here are the verses that stand out [...]
Good morning... I met a poem this weekend that whispered to me about the consistency of life, year by year by year. Our high hopes are laid to rest in the soil of our common ground, and the low lows are lifted up as fodder for our creative connection. ****** "This was the year that was not the [...]
Good morning... This week, a friend from our Sunday afternoon group sent us a prayer written by Howard Thurman (November 18, 1899 – April 10, 1981). We, as a group, read Thurman's influential book Jesus and the Disinherited a few semesters back. Howard Thurman's theology of radical nonviolence has shaped the faith life of generations, and he was [...]
Good morning... As the first light of the new year crept through the slots in our bathroom shutters, I sensed the moon growing pregnant with full potential. Sure enough. The Wolf Supermoon (Wolf named for howling wolves in winter and Supermoon because it coincides with the Moon's closest point to Earth, appearing larger and brighter) will occur on [...]
Good morning... My favorite Christmas song reached me when Steve and I were newlyweds. The acapella group Glad harmonized the meaning of that first Christmas morn with their song In the First Light. This special song was produced in 1988, when I was 25 years old. Enjoy these lyrics before experiencing this powerful song. In the first light [...]
