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... Walking the familiar sidewalk into our backyard, I noticed a yellow blossom at rest on a bed of dying brown. I lifted my eyes to see extravagant buds all over the sprawling vine. This was the day I noticed anew, "Everything is changing." What "used to be" is dying, [...]
Good morning... The praise band led us in a meaningful song. I thought of all the dusty rubble blanketing Ukraine. All our living bodies that came from dust and will someday return. The humbling pain of the lost, the grieving, the vulnerable. The organic growth of hope that mysteriously sprouts from our chaos. Revisiting the simple lyrics now, [...]
Good morning... 89 cents. 89 cents. 89 cents. Plus my 25% Tuesday discount at Goodwill, since I am happily over fifty-five. I spent a whopping $2.00 on a threesome of aromatherapy candles, each with a uniquely delicious scent. One for the morning. One for the daytime. One for the nite nite. I did not know what would happen [...]
Good morning... "I'm feeling very stretched," a friend texted me yesterday. I could relate. I could totally relate. In a weird way this mid-December week reminds me of the Christmastime I was nearly nine months pregnant. Then and now I feel stretched beyond my comfortable capacity, like I want to jump out of my bursting skin! Romans 8:22-25 [...]
Good morning... Just like the miraculous multiplication which fed 5,000 hungry people (with leftovers to spare), we each shared our own puny fish, our own little loaves. One friend donated a tree skirt and a handful of heart ornaments. Another brought lights - some big, some small, some colored, some white - along with some jingling bells and [...]
Good morning... Like the red, hard blueberry in the plastic pail above, my day began with a bitter mistake, an error in judgement, a disrespectful choice. I did what I could to remedy the situation, but the damage had already been done. Hurt had happened. I was wrong. I felt so bad. I genuinely apologized. Disappointed in myself, [...]
Good morning... The first two emails I receive today whisper to my soul, "Wholeness is happening." One email looks outside; the other looks inside. Over time, I sense the two merging and multiplying. The photo above came from the country of Norway, which for me in Atlanta, Georgia is the far side of the globe. "These days the [...]
Good morning... "Coping is something we do when we are overwhelmed," says the single note I took at our therapeutic community group at PAWkids yesterday. Instead of searching for the words in the puzzle above, I decided to search my heart, pondering the given list of helpful coping skills. Smile. Clean. Exercise. Walk. Water. Sing. Relax. Turtle. Laughing. [...]
Good morning... God set our new semester ablaze as we gathered to study one tiny book, Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. As we have seen the horrific images of the mass graves found in Ukraine this week, I have pondered one long sentence from our class reading. "She will learn to distinguish between those things in life - [...]
