Good morning... I unzip my purse and unfold the church bulletin. I re-read from my Sunday morning scribblings of sermon notes. "When is the best time to plant a tree?" asked the pastor. After being greeted with silence he gave us the answer. "Twenty years ago. Twenty years ago is the best time to plant a tree." "When [...]
Good morning... "We all try to do what seems like the task that life first hands us," writes Richard Rohr, "establishing an identity, a home, relationships, community, security, and building a proper platform for our only life." This is a good place for all of us to begin. Rohr continues: "But it takes us much longer to discover [...]
Good morning... At 4:41 am I finished and sent yesterday's post Way of Life. Before climbing back in bed, uncharacteristically, I set my alarm. I was coaxed awake for a second time at 7:30 am. I enjoyed a cup of coffee on our back porch before my 8:30 am walk-and-talk. I was to meet up with a long-time [...]
Good morning... As we gathered for communion in a small church in the woods, the pastor extended gentle words of invitation: "The will of God is the way of life, and we want to get all wrapped up in it." Jotting the sentence in my bulletin, I return to the statement now. If the will of God is [...]
Good morning... At our Writers' Group gathering this week, we enjoyed a delightful dinner together under outdoor ceiling fans. When it was my time to share, I heard myself say, "Well, the big thing for me is that God has changed my heart as a writer." Meeting one year ago in the final week of May, everyone in the [...]
Good morning... When I look back on this week of growing spiritually with you, I must admit I was a bit embarrassed that I had written about God "easter-ing" in us on the Monday after a weekend revealing another senseless synagogue shooting. "Easter-ing" is about Christ living on in us, right? And our Jewish friends have different beliefs [...]
Good morning... "I will not die an unlived life," begins the Dawna Markova quote our friend read aloud to us in class. "I will not live in fear of falling or catching fire. I choose to inhabit my days, to allow my living to open me, to make me less afraid, more accessible; to loosen my heart until [...]
Good morning... In my quiet time this morning, I am drawn to cultivate yesterday's controversial post, expanding the fertile, common ground beneath our feet. Whether we walk to the middle with God from the left or walk to the middle with God from the right, As we take into our body the broken body of Christ, we are united [...]
Good morning... Whatever life phase you wake up to this springtime Sabbath, God's endless love rains down fresh and gentle. “Let my teaching drop as the rain, My speech distill as the dew, As the light rain upon the tender grass, And as the spring showers upon the herb" (Deuteronomy 32:2, AMP). What teaching has the LORD dropped [...]
Good morning... As we savor this Sabbath, we look at the remnants of the spiritual onion we have been exploring together. Our posts from this week are developing in us the art of living through the layers of life (touch the "Previous" link at the top of this post to review our morning messages). Whatever season is surrounding [...]
