Good morning... In my book, I put a question mark by a new-to-me word. Evanescent. Do you know what "evanescent" means? I love to treasure hunt truth, so I get to googlin'. "Evanescent" means soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence. Quietly fading. Quickly fleeting. Brief. Short-lived. Vanishing. "Every person's life is lined with memories, keepsakes, habits, and [...]
Good morning... In one week this fall, I learned the root meaning of two key words. One Thursday morning, I learned: "anxiety" means "to choke." I get that. When I get anxious, I tighten up. I spiral down inwardly, constricting myself. I cut off my own air supply with obsessively anxious thoughts. The next Tuesday afternoon, I learned: "conspire" means [...]
Good morning... 2.18.2018. As I write the date in my journal, I notice the pretty pattern of today's numbers. This exact date has never been before. This exact date will never come again. Two. Eighteen. Two thousand and eighteen. We all wake to lives in flux. One of a kind. Imperfectly unique. We all wake today to lives in [...]
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... Over thirty years ago when my husband and I walked up the wedding aisle as twenty-four year old newlyweds, we could not have known we would wake today seeking God's wisdom with a community of grievers. Before crafting this morning's blog message, I dig down deep to mine the hidden gems of God's living presence. As the [...]
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... "I remember feeling pregnant with twins," she wrote me after yesterday's post, I Feel Pregnant With Quadruplets. "My husband would ask how I felt each day and my answer was always, "Heavy, I feel heavy." Not "I feel fat," but "I feel heavy." Heavy from the physical load on my body and heavy from the emotional load [...]
Good morning... Last week, I held my head like a 9-month-pregnant belly. My spiritual director said, "I have never seen you do that before, holding you head with both hands like you are trying to keep it from exploding." It's true. I felt like my brain could burst at any time with all the doubling daily details. This spring, [...]
Good morning... In the midst of his suffering on the cross, Jesus dropped his words into the pool of prayer. Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last, (Luke 23:46, NIV). In other translations, Jesus' words read, "Father, I entrust my spirit into [...]
