Good morning... After yesterday's post, Untangling Our Sadness, a friend wrote: "I can't remember if I sent this to you. Your post this morning made me think of this jar image. A friend sent it to me and it really spoke to me." People tend to believe that grief shrinks over time. What really happens is that we [...]
Good morning... Walking toward the excruciating pain of the cross, Jesus is described as "a man of sorrows and suffering, knowing sadness well" (Isaiah 53:3, NLV). How well do we each know our own sadness? In our therapeutic community group, we explored the experience of sadness, the different forms sad can take. Big sad. Small sad. Light sprinkling [...]
Good morning... I began my 62nd birthday week writing a blog post entitled The Art of Aging. Now, look what I just found tucked on our bookshelf - a book entitled The Art of Aging by Sherwin B. Nuland. I vaguely remember a generous friend giving me this gift a while back, and I had yet to open [...]
Good morning... Last night, we enjoyed an ecumenical Unity Seder at Temple Emanu-el in Sandy Springs. What a fun and festive evening! A very large room was filled to the brim with people from various faith communities throughout our city. "Good people of all different faiths can come together to celebrate people of all faiths coming together," said [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, I received this precious birthday card from my parents in Ohio. It blended beautifully with the touching poem I received at 7:30 am. "Birth-day" by Lucille Clifton blessed my inbox. The poem's first words and final words sum up our life at every age. today we are possible. what we will become waits in us [...]
Good morning... As I turn 62 on Sunday, March 23rd, I am learning so many marvelous, new things. The best birthday cake is shared. A friend in our therapeutic community group shared with us a homemade pound cake. My piece to eat and my piece to take home were instead sliced and shared with about eight young adult [...]
Good morning... After our life-giving discussion, she sent us all a text: "I just read this poem and it makes me think of our book and the special bond within this group, as we each remind each other that the sun does indeed shine." ****** "Coping" by Audre Lorde It has rained for five days running the world [...]
Good morning... On my own, I did not understand the material assigned for Sunday's discussion of Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankel. I needed our small group to help spark wise thoughts, make real connections, and weave random words into a warm cloak of wisdom. About ten or twelve of us talked through the chapter, finding our [...]
Good morning... There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re [...]
Good morning... As I walked our dogs before bedtime last night, I marveled at the full moon. Then I went to sleep and I woke again, stepping outside at 12:55 am, expecting to see the highly touted "blood moon." Instead of the gorgeous reddish hue predicted, as the Earth eclipsed the moon, my [...]
