Good morning... I'm stirred awake by the Spirit at 1:23. The simple ascending pattern tickles my attention. I look around the dark room, and light plays on our walls. I snap a few photos before I step outside. In the front yard, I check. No moon. In the back yard, I search. No moon. Tomorrow night's full moon [...]
Good morning... We canceled class last month due to our southern snow, so yesterday was our first Sunday afternoon gathering of this new semester. How wonderful it was to share prayer concerns, unpack tangled thoughts, and glean nuggets of life-giving wisdom. Our book for this season is a treasured classic, Man's Search for Meaning by Victor Frankl. Here [...]
Good morning... A friend shared a simple quote: "No one is grateful for what they expect." I think about her statement and humbly disagree. I am grateful to rest in the groggy phase each day, between being fully asleep and consciously awake. I am grateful to sip and savor freshly brewed coffee, morning after morning after morning after [...]
Good morning... "Sue," she wrote yesterday from Jacksonville, Florida. "I'm getting chills reading today's reflection, He Closed His Eyes. When I pressed play and heard Christy Nockel's stunning, distinctive voice, I was brought back to my Mom's final moments last Valentine's Day as I played Christy's version of 'Be Thou My Vision.' Mom was ushered on to heaven [...]
Good morning... Last week in our post The Setting Of A Life, I wrote about being with my friend, Martha, as her husband was in the process of dying. That visit to his memory care unit happened on a Monday afternoon. A week later, this past Monday, two of us close friends shared dinner with Martha and thoroughly [...]
Good morning... After writing yesterday's post about 2025 trips being led my husband, Steve, I received the perfect follow up. "I will always treasure the memory of my trip to Israel with Steve the year after my Mother went to heaven," she wrote. "It was not only a learning experience but a healing one that God provided." "Now [...]
Good morning... Last Saturday night, the Spirit exploded. To cap off our day of learning at the Stir Up the Gift of God in You retreat, I led a Soul Collage session with about fifty women in St. Simons, Georgia. Trained as a Soul Collage facilitator a few years back, it was really fun to share this creative [...]
Good morning... Yesterday's rain provided the perfect backdrop. Drizzly. Dreary. Grey. With gratitude for the weepy sky, I drove to be with my friend and her actively dying husband. We enjoyed a sacred visit. Our eyes bonded briefly, he and me, and loving energy was exchanged. Then his eyelids softly closed, as he drifted back to sleep. One [...]
Good morning... I copied the wisdom of Kate Bowler into my current journal. "Blessed are we, the ones whose emotions show up like uninvited houseguests and refuse to leave," says Kate. "May we learn to offer them a cup of tea, sit with them awkwardly, and realize they're not as scary as we thought. Most of the time. [...]
Good morning... Doodling artist Grant Snider, creator of Incidental Comics and picture books, describes himself as a "keeper of sketchbooks, loser of pens." I absolutely love his uniquely creative work. For me, this series of comic book images entitled "Morning Light," these images beg an essential question. "The morning sun doesn't care what is warmed by her radiant [...]
