Good morning... Today's block on my calendar whispers, "Last Quarter," with a tiny sketch of a moon similar to the image above. Left half dark. Right half light. Now, to the light of a lamp in the dark hours of this night, I am drawn back to two quotes we read aloud yesterday during our final Monday class [...]
Good morning... Last Wednesday, we ended our class for the young moms at Northside Church with a simple, low-key, makeshift party. Pretzels and pistachios. Carrots and spicy almond Bitchin' Sauce. Apple cider, seltzer waters and gooey homemade brownies. Easy, honest conversation rounded out our bonding semester, as we sat on the floor, picnic style, in the children's wing [...]
Good morning... Having journeyed together through Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor, we arrive at the final poem. Might all of our learning culminate here? My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going . . . and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. [...]
Good morning... "God Works While We Wait," says the ornament in a pristine box. But waiting feels like being stuck, and being stuck feels yuck. "If you get stuck, lower your standards," my mentor said nonchalantly. ***** If You Get Stuck by Sue Allen If you get stuck, lower your standards. Breathe deep, intentionally. Open space. Wait. Wait [...]
Good morning... Amid life's complexity, I choose a mug each morning. Black coffee is warm and welcoming, a half-caff companion. Here's a perfect mug choice for this very day. Misshapen and made by a stranger named Jillian, this Goodwill treasure understands the patchiness of our lives, our one-of-a-kind fragments oddly molded together. Naked. Stained crimson. Random parts form [...]
Good morning... Together we explored images of hope. Discovered in our self-protective cave, we are touched by cascading light. How might hope be painted on the rubble of our daily lives? We peer through a peephole of possibility. New life sprouts from the clouded mystery. Reaching from opposite sides, together we hold a darkened heart. What our lives [...]
Good morning... "What do joy and grief have in common?" asks poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. "...The ability to evoke feeling that pushes us and opens us and helps us to be compassionate and helps us fall in love." In the 10-minute video below, released yesterday for this holiday season, Rosemerry reads poems that span grief and joy from [...]
Good morning... "It saddens me to see such division in our church, but God will help us figure that out," she wrote after yesterday's post. "I came across this poem and I think it speaks for people as well as for the church. My depression is still waxing and waining like the moon, so I know it speaks [...]
Good morning... I woke yesterday to an email from our pastor announcing changes in the United Methodist Church. "In what was a solemn day, members of the 2023 North Georgia Annual Conference ratified the disaffiliation agreements of 261 churches at a Special Called Session," begins the article recounting Saturday's important gathering. Later we learn "...approximately 440 North Georgia [...]
Good morning... We face an unknown future, dependent on the grace of God. What is grace exactly, Lord? a. Divine favor bestowed freely on people. b. The state of having received unearned favor. c. A supernatural power granted unconditionally by God. God is full of grace. From him we have all received grace in place of the grace [...]
