Good morning... Last weekend, I led a retreat with thirty-two women for Kairos, a small Presbyterian church in town. God inspired the "Made for More" retreat material from a funny card I received several years back. Symbolically, we are all born as caterpillars, mindlessly munching the leaf upon which we [...]
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... We are on the cusp of a new semester. Cusp. I love that little word. A point of transition between two different states. On the verge of what comes next. An interval of time just before the onset of something new. Brink. Edge. Threshold. This week, as we begin a new semester of learning in our [...]
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... 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... Happy New Year! There is no better way to recognize new phases of growth than to remember where we were while celebrating where we are. Two photos, set side by side, tell the story of natural, unstoppable growth. One is from October; the other was taken last night just after the ball dropped in Time Square. [...]
Good morning... As this fall semester comes to an end before our winter/spring semester begins, it dawns on me that I have been blogging most days since the fall of 2015. Ten years of waking in the wee hours, opening up two-way-street veins of private prayer, seeking to discern the presence, the patterns, the power of our living [...]
Good morning... Yesterday the annual email came in, announcing the beginning of Northside Church's Advent devotional. Exquisitely written and creatively shared, the talent of Dr. James Johnson and his new wife, Elisabeth Shabbi Johnson, are on full display. I invite you to come along on the daily journey with us, beginning with yesterday's introductory email. ****** Introduction to [...]
Good morning... After creating Martha's Happy Painting, my artist friend, Gina, talked about the process of transforming the unfinished painting I had purchase at a flea market. "Sue, the original looked like the painter was struggling with body form, layout and color," Gina wrote. "The colors were cold and it had no depth. I did not like the [...]
