Good morning... She read the poem aloud. Slowly. Quietly. Prayerfully. Twice, she read the poem aloud, wondering what we noticed. In this quiet moment, might we also do the same? Read slowly, quietly, prayerfully. What inklings do you notice? ****** In Search of Our Kneeling Places by Ann Weemes In each heart lies a Bethlehem, an inn where [...]
Good morning... Last Wednesday, we ended our class for the young moms at Northside Church with a simple, low-key, makeshift party. Pretzels and pistachios. Carrots and spicy almond Bitchin' Sauce. Apple cider, seltzer waters and gooey homemade brownies. Easy, honest conversation rounded out our bonding semester, as we sat on the floor, picnic style, in the children's wing [...]
Good morning... Together we explored images of hope. Discovered in our self-protective cave, we are touched by cascading light. How might hope be painted on the rubble of our daily lives? We peer through a peephole of possibility. New life sprouts from the clouded mystery. Reaching from opposite sides, together we hold a darkened heart. What our lives [...]
Good morning... Thinking, "I can't process everything," I close my eyes to cocoon in silent dark. I breathe. Breathe deep. Breathe more. Quietly my mind recalls the words of a friend. "The intense hatred of human beings is heartbreaking and hard. Why is everything coming undone?" In sensing without my eyes, I re-realize, the ways of the world [...]
Good morning... "What people stand to discover...is the close relationship between individual heartbreak and the brokenheartedness of the world," notices Barbara Brown Taylor in Learning to Walk in the Dark. "While those who are frightened by the primal energy of dark emotions try to avoid them, becoming more and more cut off from the world at large, those [...]
Good morning... In the middle of our ordinary days, the three of us text or email regularly. Two from Atlanta, Georgia; one from Jacksonville, Florida. Yesterday a devotional page was generously shared with important insights. All three of us could totally relate. Too often we let our own thoughts interfere with God's intimate invitation, to listen to the [...]
Good morning... When my friend texted me her picture of sheep grazing in a gorgeous field on the back roads of France, I could not help but return to her my own sheep picture. "The photo of our borrowed sheep is not as stunning as yours," I admitted, "but I am learning so much about the tedious process [...]
Good morning... "Ah! So perfect! This one is for me!" she emailed me after yesterday's post, The Back Roads Of Your Self. "Up at 4:00 am because of jet lag after a wonderful month with my husband wandering the gorgeous back roads of France. Feeling so free then and now feeling a little overwhelmed by the highway life. [...]
Good morning... Because all the green leaves have been nibbled from our ivy, now our ten borrowed sheep pull up and eat the thick brown vines in our back yard. It's been fascinating to watch these creatures eat, eat, and eat some more, eighteen hours a day they say. The sheep have learned to come to my gentle [...]
Good morning... Last night power drained out of me, as I taught a roomful of women at a nearby church. The requested topic? The Enneagram, an ancient personality test used by Christian mystics. My source of exhaustion? A new group of people, a plethora of information, tons of creative energy expended. The greatest grace experienced? Afterwards, I had [...]
