I Was So Disappointed
Good morning... Yesterday morning, I was expecting the highly anticipated Blood Moon effect of a total lunar eclipse, so I woke when it was predicted to be at peak. Instead of seeing the full moon mysteriously turn red, I saw clouds. Grey. Dense. Blinding clouds. "What a disappointment!" said the body language of our twelve year old dog, Gracie. Yet, our disappointment turned to [...]
38 Billion Ways
Good morning... The bright light of tonight's full moon fills our home at 1:00 am. The Blood Moon of the total lunar eclipse, best seen in our area between 6:00 and 7:00 am this morning, will be more than 38 billion miles away (I think). I met an honest poem yesterday with that distance as its title. ******* "38 Billion" by Naomi Shihab Nye [...]
The Moon Is On Fire
Good morning... It feels like the world is on fire. Doesn't it? Bombs detonating. Flames charring. Plumes of smoke rising. Buildings demolished. Lives destroyed. People displaced. As aggression is ignited in various corners of the globe, it feels like our world is on fire. Tonight it will feel as if the moon is on fire too. The Old Farmer's Almanac teaches us intriguing facts. Tonight's full moon is known as the Worm Moon, [...]
The Joy Of Being Sad
Good morning... "We travelled through dark moments together," writes Katherine May on page 120 of Wintering. "I won't pretend it was fun. But it was necessary all the same. We raged and grieved together. We were overcome with fear. We worried and slept it off, and didn't sleep, and let our timetables turn upside down. We didn't so much retreat from the world as let it recede from us. We howled out in [...]
Our Dogs In Heaven
Good morning... As we learn to see the larger and deeper grace cushioning life's harsher blows, we allow the Spirit's teachings to take deeper root in us. When the power of the Eternal assumes center stage in our daily lives, the veil between earth and heaven gradually thins. "I love this sentence of yours..." a friend wrote after last Friday's post. "I truly believe God's eternal promise is extended to our dogs. And [...]
See A Deeper Truth
Good morning... Typically, for the classes I teach, our winter/spring semester concludes just before Holy Week. This winter, with Easter being so early, our final classes are scheduled for the last week of March. "We don't want to end that early," my Thursday class protested. "Can we do another book together in the month of April?" I agreed to pray about the possibility, and God drew me to the perfect book to partner [...]
Brave Enough To Begin
Good morning... As my husband and I were away visiting my family in Ohio this weekend, our dog sitter retrieved from the front porch bag after bag, box after box, donated item after donated item. Yesterday, I spent time assembling and dropping off the fifteen Welcome Bags we created for the recovering women arriving for the ISP retreat at Ignatius House today. The retreat, entitled "Brave Enough To Begin Again," will offer a [...]
Crash Or Be Carried?
Good morning... Flying home from Ohio in the early morning dark, I looked out the window and saw the intriguing image above. We were flying forward with black direction arrows pointing back. Somehow it felt like the world we are living in right now. Confusion. Conflicting messages. Flying forward while being directed backward. It reminds me of an example from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God, a very [...]
My Mom’s Secret Beauty
Good morning... Over this wild winter weekend, my husband and I flew to Ohio for a brief visit with family. As we gathered with my parents and my siblings, their spouses and a few of my sister's kids, I spent some quiet quality time with my mom privately. At age 87, slowly recovering from four years of various hospitalizations, what my mom mostly does now is soak things in and smile. [...]
Loving And Losing Libby
Good morning... When my sister Cathy came to Atlanta to hear Kay Warren speak a few weeks ago, she was concerned that her twelve year old dog Libby might not make it through the weekend. Then this week, on Tuesday, these words appeared in our extended family's group text: "Libby passed away this morning 😢" "Oh, I am so sorry, Cathy," I texted immediately. "I am so grateful she waited for you to [...]
Our Welcome Bags Overflow
Good morning... While we were on the women's retreat two weeks ago, I snapped this photo of a heart shape on the sidewalk. Revisiting it now, I sense a profound epiphany. When the dirt and the residue of our broken lives gradually loosen and fall away, what remains is the heart of Christ. As the song in yesterday's Ash Wednesday post sang, "We must decease. You must increase." We bend our knee and [...]
When Life Humbles Us
Good morning... On Sunday in worship, the musicians sang a song I had never heard. I went home, and I researched the gift. Humble Jesus by Audrey Assad speaks the truth we all need to hear on this dark Ash Wednesday morn. ****** [Verse 1] Humble and human, willing to bend You are Fashioned of flesh and the fire of life, You are Not too proud to wear our skin To know this [...]