A Six Month Nightmare
Good morning... The photo above was sent with the email below. "Dear Sue," a close friend wrote. "You know well the agonies of parenthood as well as the joys, and your contacts are so wide. Please share as you are able and see fit. This message under Will's photo is from his mom, RuthAnn." "So much heaviness in our time and in our days," my friend's email continued. "I have complete [...]
Help Me Find Me
Good morning... Last Friday, we began our class with silence, a reading, and a prayer. Before I read aloud the heartfelt prayer below, I asked people to consider, "Which words capture your attention?" After our time of prayer, we introduced ourselves to one another for the first time by sharing the words grabbing us most, explaining why these words might have touched us so. Now if you were to introduce yourself to a [...]
Celebrating Angie’s Life
Good morning... At 2:00 pm today we will gather in the church sanctuary to celebrate Angie's life. How utterly impossible to sum up a whole vibrant lifetime in one touching hour. Reading Angie's obituary, I am struck by the expanse and the generosity of her love for others. How deeply she will be missed by so many left on earth. Mission-minded, family-oriented, an ordinary person just like us, Angie went to heaven last [...]
Grief Is Hard Work
Good morning... This encouraging video was created last April by our author for this semester, Paula D'Arcy, and her seasoned spiritual friend, Khris Ford. Well worth five minutes of our time, the insights shared may be helpful for those personally struggling through grief and for those seeking to walk beside a loved one who is slowly trudging through. Deepening into our common ground, we all nod in agreement, "Grief is really hard work." [...]
When Our World Is Upended
Good morning... Author Paula D'Arcy knows the upending sensation of sudden loss. Before diving into Paula's book Sacred Threshold: Crossing the Inner Barrier to Deeper Love, I read aloud to our class a few pages from her first book, Gift of the Red Bird, written in 1996. Listen to the healing heart of the wise woman who guides us towards God's light amid life's deepest darkness. ***** Chapter Two, page 29-30 In January [...]
A Grandparent’s Grief
Good morning... In our post We Need Friends, I shared about our grieving friend who lost her first grandchild to a miscarriage. "Oh my!" one reader wrote from South Carolina. "God is surely speaking in stereo AGAIN. My heart hurt and my eyes pricked with tears this morning when I read about your class participant’s loss. In 2012 I lost my first grandchild to adoption, and that was one of the most secret, [...]
Remembering Julie
Good morning... I wake early this morning, remembering Julie. Julie Harlan, a dear friend, was a longtime member of our Friday morning class and a committed attender of our young moms' studies at Northside Church. Julie was humble and faithful, a prayer warrior extraordinaire. Shockingly diagnosed with stomach cancer at age forty-one, Julie battled through harsh treatments for thirty-eight days before she was welcomed into our heavenly home. The day was April 2nd, [...]
We Need Friends
Good morning... This morning around 10:30 am, women on our Friday morning roster will walk down the sidewalk to the left of our home, pass through our wooden gate and into the warmth of our cozy basement. We will begin our deep dive into Paula D'Arcy's Sacred Threshold: Crossing the Inner Barrier to Deeper Love. Our class has not been together since the first Friday in December, and I cannot wait to welcome [...]
Finding The Will To Live
Good morning... "I love your post today!" she wrote yesterday after experiencing our morning message Just Show Love. "I posted one of your quotes to my Instagram. So cool. God is really talking through you these days!" Look at God's love shining through my creative friend. As I have told you before, I do not Instagram, twitter-tweet or Face-a-book, but I admire tremendously those who creatively use these social media platforms [...]
Just Show Love
Good morning... After pushing through our post Pregnant With Worry, around 2:15 pm yesterday little Lucy breathed her first breath. She now joins her family and friends on the adventure of her lifetime. I was overjoyed to receive the birth texts and first photos shared with loved ones. When it comes to parenting newborns and toddlers, "Retrospect is such a beautiful view," as my spiritual mentor Betty Skinner used to say. As I [...]
Pregnant With Worry
Good morning... On January 6th, 2022, the Spirit of God spurred me to write an email to a pregnant young mom in our church family. As her due date came closer my regular prayers for her intensified, giving birth to the email exchange I share with you now. "Hello there," I wrote, and the following words tumbled onto the page. ****** I am thinking of you this morning in an extra deep way, [...]
How To Overcome
Good morning... Yesterday as we pulled up to drop off donated dinner items for the men overcoming homelessness and addiction at Trinity House, I asked my husband Steve, "For how many years have we been doing this every month?" We thought back to when a student in the junior class called to ask if kids from The Lovett School, where Steve serves as chaplain, might make and take meals for the Trinity House [...]