Good morning... "Meant to check in with you earlier!!" the Program Director from Ignatius House Retreat Center texted me on Thursday. "First overnight ISP retreat is Monday! Hoping you had it on your calendar…🤞🏼." Ugh! I had neglected to put the date on my calendar when I got the reminder back in January, but I immediately texted her [...]
Good morning... Life gets busy for all of us. Schedules fill up. Routines settle in. It is very easy for weeks to pass without spending quality time together. Distance hinders. Commitments clash. Time can evaporate without meaningful connection. For our family, last night was different. At Christmas time, we gave the gift of Mamma Mia tickets at the [...]
Good morning... "When you read the four biographies of Jesus in the New Testament, one thing is painfully clear: Jesus' life template was based on a rhythm of retreat and return, like breathing in and out," writes John Mark Comer on page 57 of Practicing the Way. "Jesus would retreat: He would slip away from the noise and [...]
Good morning... After our post Pause. Breathe. Expand., a longtime friend texted: "I saw this last night and thought it coincided with your post this morning. This is more academic, but we need to allow the Holy Spirit into our Learning Spaces too." How wonderfully wired by God we are! We are drawn regularly into the fertile, frustrating [...]
Good morning... In our therapeutic community group downtown, the leader shared a quote from Victor Frankl, the author of the book we are discussing on Sunday afternoons, Man's Search for Meaning. "Between stimulus and response," she quoted Frankl, "there is a space." "Expand that space and invite the Holy Spirit into it," she encouraged us. "Pause. Breathe. Expand." [...]
Good morning... Before I leaving my parents' villa to visit my mom in the hospital, I looked down on their table to see two simple items. A small wooden reminder, "In all things give thanks." And a card with a butterfly, black and white, yellow and orange. I did not know if my mom, unresponsive in the ICU [...]
Good morning... Following yesterday's post, Expect To Be Grateful, all day long people in our written word community sent me simple things sparking gratitude. Our pets and our people. Admiring nature and noticing beauty. Savoring daily things like coffee and food, sky and sun, brisk walks and safe travels. We're grateful for doctors and churches, dear friends sharing [...]
Good morning... "If God wants to teach you something new," one wise friend says, "God takes you on a trip." My soul instinctively nods her head. Walking ten to fifteen miles a day, traveling the sacred Camino De Santiago in Spain last fall, certainly taught me a ton. I learned about the steady inner peace found when stretched [...]
Good morning... When I look in my rearview mirror, I savor the healing power of last weekend's Stir Up the Gift of God in You retreat in St. Simons, Georgia. With content based on the true story of Christian mystic Betty Skinner, the Spirit of our living God, and the science of awakening, we learned practical ways to [...]
Good morning... These glass bottles line one window sill in our living room. They serve as a reminder of God's repeating process of growth, change, regeneration. The egg of our potential exists. Then, unexpectedly, things fall apart. We sit still in the sticky mess, empty, empty, empty. Over time, the seed of new life begins to form, "Amazing [...]
