Why Am I So Ugly?
Good morning... Men and women, black and white, younger and older, we unpack our mixed feelings in our therapeutic community group each Tuesday morning at PAWkids. Last week we were each deeply touched by a film clip from the 2017 movie Wonder. "Why am I so ugly?" the tearful boy asks. "Honey, listen. We all have marks on our face," says actress Julia Roberts as she comforts her sad, anxious son. Touching her [...]
Adrift Feels Very Lonely
Good morning... Adrift. She shares her truth. In so many important ways, my soul friend feels adrift. She has moved away from what has long been her church home. She has lost trust in a minister with whom she shares a deep, rich history. She feels kicked out of her extended family, a pain intensifying as the holidays near. Recently vacationing with an old friend group, she simply could not fake the fact [...]
Relationships Are Messy
Good morning... I just woke from a dream, short and intriguing. My husband had forgotten to tell me that there was a large plastic container in our backyard with a huge pile of leaves beside it. He had spent hours raking the leaves in our yard, and he expected me to somehow transfer the leaves into this big black box. I needed to do it before the winds picked up and blew the [...]
Still. Steep. See.
Good morning... "Discernment is first of all a habit, a way of seeing that eventually permeates our whole life," explains our post from yesterday, Angels Among Us. "It is the journey from spiritual blindness (not seeing God anywhere or seeing him only where we are expecting to see him) to spiritual sight (finding God everywhere, especially where we least expect it). Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Jesuits and best known for developing [...]
Angels Among Us
Good morning... In our Friday study, we read these words aloud from Sacred Rhythms: Arranging Our Lives For Spiritual Transformation by Ruth Haley Barton. Recently I spent time with our daughter's soccer team at the beginning of a practice devoted to watching game films. We discussed the importance of game films and how it gives them an opportunity to notice mistakes they had made in the previous game (so they could do it [...]
Grieving A Child
Good morning... "Hi Sue," she wrote. "I have fully experienced how close the Lord has been in my grief, and no doubt, He alone has saved me. I do feel like He is blessing me tremendously and showing me tremendous favor as I begin to live again after Dalton’s death 5 1/2 years ago. Still so fresh." "However, there are those days, quite a few if I am being honest, when I am [...]
Grieving A Soulmate
Good morning... "Dear Sue, I hope you are doing well," she emailed after yesterday's post, The Blessing Hidden In Grief. "I miss our walks but returning to my position at school fills my days. My students are wonderful. Teaching them fills my heart with joy, and I’m so grateful for this bridge to whatever comes next in my life." "Yes, that’s right," she said. "I don’t know what happens next and I’m okay [...]
The Blessing Hidden In Grief
Good morning... "Now with the Awake To Wholeness retreat behind us, might we celebrate your birthday season?" I texted a friend. (As I reflect, I realize that "behind" is the wrong word. It is more accurate to say, "Now with the retreat inside us, might we celebrate?") "And . . . I thoroughly enjoyed retelling the Saturday experience to several friends yesterday," another friend wrote. "It keeps giving!" "Then . . . Henri [...]
Steve And The Jordan River
Good morning... "Every time our ordinary life bumps up against an unavoidable loss, there are choices to be made," concluded our blog post yesterday morning, Our Passage To New Life. "Will we allow the loss we are currently facing to be a passage to something new, something wider, something deeper? Like the Israelites following God's lead out of controlling captivity to the abundance of the Promised Land, how might the passage at hand [...]
Our Passage To New Life
Good morning... I chuckle to myself as I read Henri Nouwen's meditation for today. Was the eternal presence of Henri eavesdropping in the chapel at our Awake To Wholeness Women's Retreat with the eternal presence of Betty Skinner on Saturday? Henri's words for today sum up exactly what God was teaching us on our sacred day of retreat. ****** DAILY MEDITATION | NOVEMBER 9, 2021 - Passages to New Life by Henri Nouwen [...]
Unwrapping Great Gifts
Good morning... Looking back over our weekend, so many multifaceted gifts were unwrapped at our Awake To Wholeness Women's Retreat. Musical meditations. Wise "Aha!" moments. For some of us, tenderizing tears. One tiny tangible gift was tied inside each napkin given with our yummy boxed lunches. A young girl from the church had hand-painted for each participant a bookmark with a unique saying from our guiding book, The Hidden Life Awakened by Kitty [...]
Stir Up God’s Gifts
Good morning... I brew a twelve cup pot of coffee before our house guests stir and marvel in amazement at the gifts God stirred up in us. "Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you," says our central Scripture from yesterday's Awake To Wholeness Women's Retreat. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and a sound mind" (2 [...]