Good morning... "It's late August," Barbara Brown Taylor begins her first chapter in Learning to Walk in the Dark. "I am lying in my yard on a blow-up mattress waiting for Friday to become Friday night, which is how I know people are wrong when they say, 'It's as clear as the difference between night and day.' That [...]
Good morning... As the full harvest moon slowly begins to empty and September breathes its last, I experience a strange occurrence. After taking our dogs out to relieve themselves in the middle of this night, I sit down on the couch to write. A few minutes later I hear a slow and quiet "creeeeeeeeeeeek." Moving cautiously toward the [...]
Good morning... After our Friday morning discussion of Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor, I looked down and saw the strange sight above. A cut out, curled up magazine page caught randomly in the corner of our patio where the fourteen of us had just finished class. From where did this image blow in? [...]
Good morning... If all goes as planned, James LeBow will experience a successful heart transplant today at Vanderbilt Heart Center in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years, his wife Brooke has been a beloved member of our women's studies at Northside Church. Mission Circle gatherings and Sunday afternoon study each month. Wednesday morning and Friday morning studies each week. [...]
Good morning... As I sip my morning coffee, I notice a swirl in the weathered wood. My mind is drawn back to a Soul Collage card I created earlier in the week. The powerful swirl of hurricane winds imitate the pattern of the knotted wood. Now that you have gathered our attention, Lord, what might you teach us [...]
Good morning... "What are you doing with this unreturned library book from Wellington, Florida?" my husband wisely asked as we were cleaning out our messy office. Of course, amid all the discarded used cookbooks, I had been drawn to this quirky paperback on the cluttered shelf at Goodwill. On the front, an image of a handcrafted flower. On [...]
Good morning... In our backyard, remnants of old blend with green growth of new. Yesterday, I snapped a few photos capturing signs of death and rebirth coexisting in the garden. Now up in the middle of the night, I feel drawn to don my slippers, to grab a pair of scissors, and to snip off, one by one, [...]
Good morning... There are times when the world we knew and loved comes to an end. Life as it used to be is over. Cherished comfort is lost. The unknown unnerves us. Even Jesus himself knows how it feels. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My [...]
Good morning... "Transitions are gaps," writes Margaret Silf on page 20 of The Other Side of Chaos. "They mark the gap between the no longer and the not yet. They are the space where we are neither in one place nor another, the hiatus between everything we knew and all that lies ahead in the unknowable future. They [...]
Good morning... The Bible begins in chaos. When God began creating the heavens and the earth, the earth was a shapeless, chaotic mass, with the Spirit of God brooding over the dark vapors. Then God said, “Let there be light.” And light appeared (Genesis 1:1-3, TLB). Then immediately God went to work, divided the light from the darkness, [...]
