Good morning... When I was a young mom of four little kids, a wise woman from our church shared an important nugget of wisdom. "Children are not for molding," she said. "Children are for unfolding." Through the change in one single word, God continues to guide me. To me, molding means pushing, shaping, exerting control. The change of [...]
Good morning... Our tree is down. Our hopes are up. Before the new day dawns, a poem breezes in. ****** i am running into a new year By Lucille Clifton i am running into a new year and the old years blow back like a wind that i catch in my hair like strong fingers like all my [...]
Good morning... "We heal what we feel," said Ron Greer, author of The Quiet House. I felt a lot when my dad said last night, "Today, I got a tree at Loews." Together, we reminisced about our annual trek around a tree farm as a family, cutting down our favorite Christmas bush (it was always wider than it [...]
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, [...]
