Good morning... The beautiful image above, sent by a loyal subscriber is Charlotte, N.C., shares my deepest prayer for you this humbling Holy Week. Our hope comes from God. May He fill you with joy and peace because of your trust in Him. May your hope grow stronger by the power of the Holy Spirit (Romans 15:13, NLV). ...Sue... [...]
Good morning... "So, when you pray in your private prayer language, don't hoard the experience for yourself," says the Scripture verse at the end of yesterday's blog post. "Pray for the insight and ability to bring others into that intimacy" (1 Corinthians 14:13, MSG). Intimacy. Sent at 3:54 am, our morning message ended in the word "intimacy." Then [...]
Good morning... A longtime friend has also had a loved one fighting for life in the ICU this month. We have been exchanging private prayers and texting one another updates most every day. She wrote me an email after this week's blog post My Mom's Bumpy Ride Home, a post which ended with a music video of Willie [...]
Good morning... Many of you continue to ask about my mom's condition since last week's post My Mom Is In The ICU. Together as a written word community we have experienced the potent power of prayer. Connected to tons of life-saving machines, there was no medical explanation for my mother opening her eyes to greet the sound of [...]
Good morning... There are many, many of layers of me. Wife. Mother. Attentive listener. Writer. Teacher. Lifelong learner. Daughter. Middle sister. Midwestern roots. Trusted friend. Dog mama. Lover of the sun, the sea, the sky. Avid prayer-er. Spiritual director. Middle of the night blogger. "Spirit of the living God, please move through the many layers [...]
Good morning... On Monday morning, my dad and I were with my mom in the ICU when her regular doctor stopped in. He had seen my mom soon after she was admitted, when she was hooked up to all the machinery keeping her alive. Very, very sick with an unidentified infection, she was unresponsive and highly sedated. That [...]
Good morning... When we left my mom in the ICU, it was a blustery late March evening with light snowflakes swirling in the Ohio air. There was a strand of hope frozen in our minds: mom had opened her eyes for about five minutes. Then she had drifted away from us again. Sustained by the ventilator, her body [...]
Good morning... "It will be good for us all to be together," my sister said as I booked a one-way ticket to Cleveland, Ohio to be with my 83-year-old mom in the ICU. "We may need to make some hard end of life decisions." The reality was sobering. I had begun the normal day facilitating our Friday class [...]
Good morning... Unexpectedly waking at dawn near Cleveland, Ohio, I shed quiet tears beside the bay window in my parents' villa. As I look out on their continuum of care community, gloomy rain turns to gentle, white snowflakes on this memorable late March morning. Soon we will visit my mom in the ICU, wondering whether her loving life [...]
Good morning... Today is Ash Wednesday, marking the beginning of Lent, the 46 days before Easter Sunday. Christianity.com explains: "Lent is a 40-day season (not counting Sundays) marked by repentance, fasting, reflection, and ultimately celebration. The 40-day period represents Christ’s time of temptation in the wilderness, where he fasted and where Satan tempted him. Lent asks believers to [...]
