Good morning... "Loved your reflection, Sue," after yesterday's post, The Perfect Getaway. "The amazing power (His not ours) of being still and truly listening! And now God speaks in stereo as I screen shot the verse I happened upon late last night." "The LORD will fight for you; you need only be still," says Exodus 14:14. In stillness, [...]
Good morning... When the Spirit nudges me awake in the middle of the night, our home is very quiet. I hear the air conditioner kick in to cool off. I notice the rhythmic breath of our sleeping dogs. I pick up the campy conversation of hidden insects outside. Deepening into the now of now, this sweet, still silence [...]
Good morning... Sitting at her picnic table, sipping our coffee, we read aloud yesterday's blog post, Buoyed By Good News. After we were done reading together, my nearly ninety-one year old mother-in-law said, "There are about three concepts there I really want to discuss." We opened our individual copies of Falling Upward to page 90, and I began [...]
Good morning... Yesterday was a historic day. The U.S. Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, sending the authority to regulate abortions back to the states. Regardless of our position on these important issues, might we still our souls in the quietness of this moment? The Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says to the [...]
Good morning... Even with all of the doors to our home closed and locked tight, I heard the birds bickering boldly in the middle of the night. Loud. Relentless. These unseen creatures were having a heated discussion. "If I open the door, trying to catch a glimpse, I might scare them away," I thought to myself, so I [...]
Good morning... Wrapped beneath a cozy blanket, I nestle alone on the outdoor couch below our back porch. With my ear to my phone, I savor the four familiar voices on our monthly call. After the silence of our opening prayer, one friend reads aloud a poem. What a quietly transformational place to begin. ****** Hide and Seek [...]
Good morning... Our soul stirs, soothes, speaks, as we walk quietly into the woods, sit patiently at the base of a tree, and fade into our surroundings like Parker Palmer recommends in A Hidden Wholeness. "You will likely be surprised at what your soul wants to say to God," concludes Ruth Haley Barton. As we unpack authentic intimacy [...]
Good morning... We discussed chapter two in our book for the semester, Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives for Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton. Solitude. Creating Space for God. For me, this felt like an inviting chapter title. As always, we began our prayer time with several moments of silence to listen more keenly to the birds, our [...]
Good morning... Slowly, prayerfully, she served up a heaping bowl of wisdom from over the phone. Then I asked her to text me the sacred reading from miles away. Now we all dive into the delicious feast together. Foreign-to-me words now become for us a meaningful meal. "Epiphany, with a capital "E", what might this mean?" [...]
Good morning... Which of these quiet quotes most attracts your soul's attention? “Alone, without distractions, we put ourselves in a place where God can reveal things to us that we might not notice in the normal preoccupations of life," encourages Adele Calhoun. "Solitude opens up a space where we can bring our empty and compulsive selves to God. [...]
