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 - [...]
Good morning... One of my favorite fall commitments, year after year, is speaking at the kickoff gathering for the Lovett School Moms In Prayer group. Yesterday around 8:00 am, about seventy-five of us collected in the Lovett scout hut to receive an encouraging word as we begin this new school year. I was kindly introduced. Sue Allen. Mom [...]
Good morning... "Downtown ATL," she texted, sharing a cloud-layered photo taken from her porch. "Twenty minutes later!" her camera captured a different view. "I marveled at how the city was shrouded," she explained, "and then seen with clarity soon after." Sometimes shrouded, sometimes seen, the city exists in both pictures above. Yet our ability to enjoy [...]
Good morning... Daily I am fed by writers pouring hard, beautiful words into my inbox. My gut nods in agreement, "This truly is true." The wisdom of Betty Skinner, shared above, mysteriously mingles with words from Kate Bowler this week. Your world has shrunk. Pain or grief or fear has sucked up every bit of oxygen from the [...]
Good morning... At 3:24 am, I finished yesterday's post and pushed send on our message, A Peacemaker Prays. The Henri Nouwen quote highlighted was sent by Ignatius House Retreat Center earlier in the week, along with the calming song and images. Our blog ended: "We actively pray, 'Lord, make me a peacemaker.'" I climbed back into bed for [...]
Good morning... After our shared silence, she read aloud a poem. Deeply. Slowly. Gently. In this sacred moment, might we each read out loud? Deeply. Slowly. Gently. ****** something unnamed is being called forth in the depths it has the familiar sound of an Abraham and the quiet certainty of a sunrise it has the movement of geese [...]
Good morning... Deeply moved... He went into his private room and wept there (Genesis 43:30, NIV). When we are deeply moved, might we also give ourselves the gift of private tears? You have seen me tossing and turning through the night. You have collected all my tears and preserved them in your bottle! You have recorded every one [...]
Good morning... As my friend and I walked and talked around the horse farm, we discussed all that feels broken, out of order, in disarray right now. Mid-sentence I looked down to see a single butterfly wing at my feet. Disconnected from the whole. Lying alone there in the dirt. I picked up the fragile...little...useless wing. The small [...]
Good morning... Along with a baby blue golf shirt to match the color of his eyes, I gave me father a tiny yellow birthday gift. Pictured above, I gave him a small symbol of the love I see him sharing tenderly with my mother, his wife for over sixty years. Two little ceramic birds leaning into each other. [...]
