Good morning... This short poem reminds me of two things. A recent walk in the woods with a dear friend. The final line from the obituary of our friend Tom McLain: "...carry on Tom's legacy: say yes to everything!" ****** "Yes, That’s When" by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer I like my body when I’m in the woods and I [...]
Good morning... During our final spiritual growth group of the semester, we opened our sacred time together by reading aloud the prayer of St. Francis. One woman was drawn to the Ralph Waldo Emerson quote, "What lies behind you and what lies in front of you, pales in comparison to what [...]
Good morning... Bursting on bare branches and decorating brown decay, vibrant green is everywhere! After weeks of thick yellow pollen and before the return of those pesky mosquitos, this weekend is perfectly positioned to exude joy and new life. Amidst blooming azaleas, towering pines and flowering dogwoods, the first full week of April always ushers in the Masters [...]
Good morning... Just one week ago today, our blog post on my 63rd birthday invited everyone to join us in creating "birthday cake boxes" for thirty senior citizens who live in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city. We were hoping for 30 boxes, 30 boxes filled with a cake mix, frosting, oil and birthday candles. What we [...]
Good morning... I am experiencing my once-in-a-lifetime "golden" birthday. I was born in 1963, and I turn 63 today! A longtime friend came up with a fabulous way to celebrate. Jeannine Rollins, a beloved Northside Church member, wrote me after recent a blog post, Kindness Is A Ripple. At the end of our post, we watched a short [...]
Good morning... In class yesterday, we continued to unpack the concept of kindness, one of the fruits of God's Spirit alive in our hearts. We agreed, in the face of so much worldly unrest - polarization, violence, despair - there is one thing we all can do, each moment of every day. We can take a deep breath [...]
Good morning... With so much strife and pain around, one of our superpowers is kindness. A small, kind act can ripple out to share the love of God. ...the fruit of the Spirit [the result of His presence within us] is love [unselfish concern for others], joy, [inner] peace, patience [not the ability to wait, but how we [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, as I drove to the vet with our six month old puppy, a tiny dream of mine died. Honestly, I have always wondered if I would whelp at least one litter of puppies in my lifetime. In awe of the cyclical nature of life, I have thought that helping my dog to give birth to [...]
Good morning... Before the winter storm blasted much of our country this weekend, I received the above image from Wisconsin. Inside, 60 degrees. Outside, negative 30, and that's without windchill! "What does negative 30 actually feel like?" I wondered. Then the winter weather arrived, and images came blowing in from family and friends. A shiny hard layer of [...]
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. [...]
