Good morning... Typically, for the classes I teach, our winter/spring semester concludes just before Holy Week. This winter, with Easter being so early, our final classes are scheduled for the last week of March. "We don't want to end that early," my Thursday class protested. "Can we do another book together in the month of April?" I agreed [...]
Good morning... As I took our puppy out to do her business this morning, I looked up and the moon was half gone. How could that be? Just a short time ago, the big ball was full and bright, the exquisite handiwork of God. A friend actually sent me this fascinating Instagram post about the February full moon. [...]
Good morning... This harsh winter has been the perfect season for us to be reading Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. On page 68, Wintering "...offers us a cyclical metaphor for life, one in which the energies of spring arrive again and again, nurtured by the deep retreat of winter. We [...]
Good morning... In our therapeutic community group at PAWkids last Tuesday, we used watercolor paints to bring this poem to life. ****** Grief Is Like A Snowflake... sometimes it comes one flake at a time; other times, it comes like a blizzard. It melts away, but it always comes back. Just as each snowflake is unique, each person [...]
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... On Sunday at church, I noticed a left-handed first grader filling out a coloring sheet entitled "Things I like to do in winter." After the service, I asked a staff person in the Children's Ministry if I could have a copy of the coloring sheet to use with our first classes of the semester. We are [...]
Good morning... Much of this season we have spent stuck in a soupy, cloudy haze. Unable to see our collective truth clearly, the human experience of many has matched the gloomy weather. The characteristic blue sunny skies of the south have been covered over by grey. With sunshine feeling rare, I have missed the patches of winter light [...]
Good morning... After a lifetime of searching for the biggest, widest Christmas tree every December - circling the tree farm, cutting our own - my husband and I decided to “go thin” this year. To be honest, we quietly grabbed the best tree we could find in Home Deposit's 8 to 9 foot bin, at 8:30 pm last [...]
Good morning... "Full moon rising," a friend wrote from California at 5:00 pm her time, 8:00 pm my time. Her photo was soft and pastel, filled with layers of lush. She forwarded from a friend an encouragement she received. ****** ✨ Bring on the Cold Moon! 🌕 TONIGHT • Stillness • Reflection • Release • Intention • Manifestation [...]
Good morning... "God's beauty this am with our first snow," wrote a friend. Around 7:00 yesterday morning, she texted photos from her porch in Black Mountain, North Carolina. "Wow! How gorgeous," I replied, as my eyes savored the colors and the shadows and the textures. "Right now, I am looking at a pink sky also, as a new [...]
