Good morning... "Just read this lovely blessing from Kate Bowler," a friend emailed me yesterday. Before the heat of the day rose high. Before the shock of another mass shooting dropped us low. Before this night of broken sleep took its tiring toll on so many ordinary people. "Thought you would enjoy it," she added, ". . . [...]
Good morning... "Sue," she emailed me, "I wanted to share this 'heavenly' picture of the full moon that I took this week after some storm clouds had passed through. I was awestruck by what I was seeing. It is from a back deck at the beach on the longest day of the year! Use it whenever you want [...]
Good morning... Enjoying a homemade, outdoor birthday dinner with two besties in my bundle, I am so grateful I was born in the spring. Spring is new life, longer days, and bursting beauty. Spring is renewal, revamping, reimagining. Spring is what happens when we wait with hope through the dark, cold, harsh, winter after winter. The day after [...]
Good morning... Yesterday morning's rising sun was hidden in a sea of thick, rainy grey. Then as we marveled at last night's setting sun, a Bible verse came to mind. In Genesis 8:22, God makes a powerful promise: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will [...]
Good morning... I read a shocking headline from fifteen hours ago: "73 Percent of the U.S. Covered in Snow, the Most Widespread Coverage in 17 Years." Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida are the only three states in the lower forty-eight completely untouched by snow on The Weather Channel map. I'm disappointed Atlanta is left out of this sensational [...]
Good morning... "My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going," she read a Thomas Merton quote over the phone to end our monthly Julie's Dream prayer meeting. "I do not see the road ahead of me. I cannot know for certain where it will end. Nor do I really know myself, and the fact that [...]
Good morning... The three of us get together each Advent to share a meal and exchange heartfelt gifts. Creatively continuing our tradition during COVID, she decorated her garage with red bows, calming light, wide open doors, and a beautifully dressed table beside a space heater. The atmosphere was warm and exquisite, enhancing the homemade food and our long, [...]
Good morning... "First snow day of the season!" my sister texted the picture above from her small town in Ohio. As kids growing up in a suburb of Cleveland, we absolutely loved snow days off from school. "Oh how gorgeous," I replied. "We had minuscule specks of snow blowing in the air yesterday. Your beautiful snow photo provides [...]
Good morning... Sixteen. I saw exactly sixteen of these black caterpillars on one walk last week. Some were crawling. Some were squished. Some littler, some bigger. The sheer number of these creatures in one morning made them impossible for me to ignore. Checking my phone when I arrived home, I was surprised by a text string from a [...]
Good morning... I walked up our stairs to the hometown bedroom of our college freshman, and this shocking image is what I saw. Appalling and endearing? Mess and excess? Raunchy and reckless? Most of you might be more mortified than I as you look at this crazy chaos, but my momma-eyes zero in on wonderful remnants of our [...]
