Good morning... Many of you could relate to yesterday's post Sadness Is A Low-grade Fever. As I was editing the message to make it more meaningful, the sun came out after several grey days and a subscriber sent me this heart-warming video. "I hope this makes you smile, Sue," he wrote, understanding that sadness and joy are flip-sides [...]
Good morning... During times of discombobulating stress, a helpful saying saturates me. "The brook would lose its song if God removed the rocks." We hate the hard knocks from life's jagged rocks, but we love the calming beauty babbling from the brook. Stones and songs. Songs and stones. We do not get one without the other. Stones and songs. [...]
Good morning... On Saturday, August 4th, 2018, three of us hiked quietly through a mountainous forest near Cashiers, North Carolina. We came upon an interesting plaque beside a fallen tree. "Competition is fierce in nature," read the engraved words, "even among the beautiful trees, shrubs, and herbs in the forest. Sunlight, water, and nutrients are quietly 'fought over' by [...]
Good morning... Media images expose California's charred devastation. Haunting. Horrifying. Heartbreaking. So much beauty and vibrant life reduced to soot, ashes, remains. The smoldering stench in the air must smell suffocating. Two men I love live in California. One a family member, the other a forever friend. One a Democrat, the other a Republican. One homosexual, the other [...]
Good morning... We sat in a small, sacred circle, ranging from one-hundred-and-one years old, through ninety-eighty-seventy-somethings, to fifty-five year old me. Our soulful speaker, a dear friend of mine, read aloud wisdom from Richard Rohr: "Poetry gives you resonance more than logical proof, and resonance is much more healing and integrating." He continued reading Rohr in his slow, [...]
Good morning... We are a skipping stone. Skimming across life's smooth surface. In constant motion. At break-my-neck speed. We feel in control as we fast-forward to our goal. For a while. Newton famously says, "An object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force." An [...]
Good morning... Before choosing a book for each new semester, I prayerfully nestle into a few chapters from a small handful of possiblilities. God knows what lies before us. God knows our every need. I totally trust the LORD to nudge: "This is the book for the season ahead." Then I put the book down before reading it fresh, [...]
Good morning... Releasing our "secondary loves" into the care of Our First Love, we are silently drawn into unity with the God who created us. I recently read a short story describing creatively the process of us melting into our true, salty self. ****** The Salt Doll by Anthony de Mello (1931-1987) A salt doll journeyed for thousands [...]
Good morning... This summer, two of my best friends and I walked through the mountains near Cashiers, North Carolina, and I snapped this photo of a pruned back tree becoming host to new forms of life, sprouting moss, supporting seedlings. This image returned to mind as I read these words aloud to our class this week. ****** Excerpt [...]
Good morning... I have been living the lyrics of an old song all summer long: "God, if a picture paints a thousand words then why can't I paint You?" Feeling drawn to the possibility of adding pictures to our everyday blog, I asked a photographer friend where to begin. She suggested two options. I could buy the latest [...]
