Good morning... "Contemplation is taking a long, loving look at something," softly said pianist Dana Cunningham during yesterday's Awake To Wellness Women's Retreat. This morning, I take a long, loving look at two stick figure people juxtaposed on my page of notes, a drawing etched as author Dr. Cathy Snapp joyfully taught. The skeleton stick figure on the left [...]
Good morning... "Nothing on our spiritual journey is ever final," says Betty Skinner on page 83 of my old, tattered copy of The Hidden Life. "It is a continuous change and movement from what is good (the place where most of us live, desiring to love and serve God) to what is better (an open and intense desire to [...]
Good morning... During my suffering season, I did share deeply with a small handful of old friends. That level of me was important to walk and talk through with trusted companions. And then there were two cloudy levels deeper, deeper still. My deepest core level was lived just with my God. Our hard-fought wrestling match, bout after bout, was [...]
Good morning... As I hazily recall my own walk down-and-up through the deep valley of depression, two words linger longest. Heavy and hollow. It is weird to feel heavy and hollow at the same time, like the shell of a 500 lb. chocolate Easter bunny who is empty inside. My depression was partially situational and mostly quite spiritual. God [...]
Good morning... At age 92, Betty Skinner is living Betty Skinner very, very well. Yet, as The Hidden Life Awakened by Dr. Cathy Snapp and Kitty Crenshaw creatively chronicles, for many years Betty stayed stifled beneath her smiling, southern role, silencing her special, sacred soul. With God hiding my updated edition somewhere in my home, I am coaxed to climb [...]
Good morning... This is the question grabbing my attention from yesterday's post Eight Questions To Ponder: "How have I been shaped by the strongest hate and the strongest love?" Asked by the speaker to quickly jot our first response to each of the eight questions, my answer to this question tumbled onto two lists. Strongest hate: Names of my [...]
Good morning... In my recent post Fill The Hole In My Soul, I shared words handwritten by my 25-year-old self in my first official journal back in 1988. Afterward a supportive subscriber wrote: "Wow. You are the same as when you were at 25. Older. Wiser. But really the same. If you had cut and pasted that message from your [...]
Good morning... Somewhere at some point within this past week, I ran across this quote hanging on someone's wall: "Our deepest roots are not touched by the frost." Our deepest roots have been growing since God first brought us to mind, and disaster and depression and even death deepen us down to our sturdiest roots. Jesus whispers, "I have [...]
Good morning... A woman who sits with me in spiritual direction, for one hour each month, offered simple, straightforward encouragement: "I feel you have this gift. Wanted to share." Intrigued, I read Bob Dannals' devotional from 2.1.18. ****** Some interpreters are always trying to figure out what really happened in the Bible's healing stories, as if they in some [...]
Good morning... In our final Listening Group of the semester, I intended to unwrap Chapter 3, but by "mistake" I read aloud excerpts from Chapter 4, a chapter entitled "God's Compassion for the Rebellious." I shared aloud these introductory words before we slowly read, reread, and reflected on the parable of the prodigal son found in Luke 15:11-24. "You [...]
