Good morning... Last Sunday was All Saints' Day, and, in every worship service at Northside Church, we celebrated the souls of loved ones in our congregation who died in the past year. A bell was rung in their honor and family and friends stood for a moment of remembrance. Last year on All Saints' Day, the soul of [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, I enjoyed the privilege of attending the Kitchen Cura graduation at the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Kitchen Cura is a six month culinary internship program which empowers individuals recovering from addiction and homelessness by teaching scratch-cooking, developing knife skills, and mastering the ability to host nutritious meals in hopes of building hospitality careers. The participants [...]
Good morning... In the morning, I took a walk through the fertile forest of fallen trees. I told you in yesterday's post, "New forms of life were sprouting up everywhere!" In the afternoon, we gathered for our session in The Upper Room, the amazing new building on the campus of the Ignatius House Retreat Center. Our retreat leaders [...]
Good morning... As I walked the mile long trail around the Ignatius House Retreat Center, I noticed the restorative beauty of the fallen trees. Though the keepers of the sacred grounds clear the rugged paths, they allow the decaying debris to naturally rest on the fertile forest floor. Like meandering through a mysterious museum, I marveled at the [...]
Good morning... The morning after snapping happy photos of our grandson Charlie last week, I looked down on our driveway and saw this gut-wrenching sight. A red frog had been caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, innocently squished by the tire of my husband's car. By no fault of it's own, the poor fella was [...]
Good morning... The timing was perfect. We met on August 31st, softly celebrating the end before a new beginning. We began by reading a short Scripture. After the sabbath, as the first day of the week was dawning, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary went to see the tomb. And suddenly there was a great earthquake; for an [...]
Good morning... Every August, I am the kick-off speaker for Lovett Moms In Prayer, a committed group of mothers who gather weekly to pray for the various needs of The Lovett School community. Every year I love gathering with this group of young women, a group that changes a bit annually, as kindergarteners arrive and high school seniors [...]
Good morning... Loss. Surgery. Rehab. Divorce. Caretaking. Health challenges. Alzheimers. Addiction. Heartbreak. Many of us are facing many hard things. "I am claiming these words these next days," one friend wrote to our Sunday afternoon class. "If you are betwixt, if you are between, if you are in the midst and the middle and the muck, if you [...]
Good morning... Blogging most days for eleven years, I have been trained to glimpse God in everyday life. People in our written word community have honed a similar awareness. Subscribers often send me pictures or stories, quotes or songs, insights or occurrences revealing the presence of our God-with-us God. Yesterday, my neighbor sent me the photo above, a [...]
Good morning... As a kid, I remember the summer season starting Memorial Day weekend, as we finished the school year, and ending on Labor Day weekend, before we returned to school. Now as an adult, I wonder, "When does summer really begin?" Googling the question I learn a few new things. Actually, the summer season can be tracked [...]
