Amid Vaccine Variants
Good morning... Yesterday was my day to get my first COVID vaccine. As I walked from square to square, each six feet apart, I felt like a kid in a cake walk at an elementary school fair. Lots of people. Lots of hope. Lots of quiet excitement. Skin color, body type, and ages varied, but collectively a bunch of us - silent strangers - overlapped in the same efficiently-organized space. By the end [...]
Steve Shares Scripture
Good morning... Many of you know and love the ministry of my husband Steve, as he has been the head chaplain and wrestling coach at The Lovett School since 1995 (minus two life-changing years in a tiny Pennsylvania town). Steve and I met at a small liberal arts school called the College of Wooster in Ohio. His chaplain message for this week begins during that college stage of our lives and ends as [...]
Hold Your Quiet Center
Good morning... This week I received a powerful poem from a forever friend who has taught me so much about grieving well and tenderly embracing every ounce of life. "A Center" by Ha Jin You must hold your quiet center, where you do what only you can do. If others call you a maniac or a fool, just let them wag their tongues. If some praise your perseverance, don't feel too happy about [...]
Live In Gratitude
Good morning... I spent my earliest morning hours crafting yesterday's blog with God, Five Years Of Unfolding. After I pressed "send" to share with you our post for the day, the Spirit drew me to another Scripture verse. Quietly I went back into yesterday's message and added the following lines. Together we have witnessed God's promise coming vibrantly true: "The life that pleases me is a life lived in the gratitude of grace, [...]
Five Years Of Unfolding
Good morning... Five years ago today the spirit of a young man returned to the God who gave it and later in the week his body was returned to the ground from which we came. Our grieving community experienced with new eyes one of my favorite Bible verses: Then shall the dust [out of which God made man’s body] return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return to God [...]
How To Love Well
Good morning... In the morning I got word that my high school classmate was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and in the evening we took dinner to a family returning home from an amazing two hour memorial service for a dear friend who died this week of ALS. Deeply touched by the video shared at the celebration of life, I received permission to share the blessing with you. It [...]
One Year Ago Yesterday
Good morning... "1 year ago today the world went sideways," my husband Steve wrote into our family group text first thing yesterday morning. "Mom, Ky (25), and I were at a Hawks game when the NBA season was canceled. Adrianna (21) found out she had to quickly get home from her study abroad semester in Spain before international travel shut down. Tessa (23) had her internship cancelled, and Jeremiah (19) was about to [...]
Our One Attachment
Good morning... "Every morning God paints a different sunrise," my friend texted me a Jon Piper quote on the day we were leaving the beach as she was arriving. "He never gets tired of doing it again and again. But then it struck me. No, he doesn't do it again and again. He never stops doing it." "The sun is always rising somewhere in the world," Piper explains. "God guides the sun twenty-four [...]
A Letter From My Mom
Good morning... My parents, at eight-two and eighty-three years old, live in a two-bedroom villa in a continuum-of-care community near my hometown of Berea, Ohio. Our whole extended family planned to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary in May...then COVID hit...and everything shut down...one full year ago this week. My annual trip from Atlanta, Georgia requires a plane flight, so my usual visit with my parents in the first week of December was also [...]
Notes From Our Visit With Betty
Good morning... Because of COVID restrictions, co-author Kitty Crenshaw and I could not hug ninety-five year old Betty Skinner, which was absolutely the hardest thing about our face to face visit. Betty's lucky caregiver Lillian was able to give her our huge hug from afar, and Kitty and I will just need to wait until next time to hug Betty again ourselves. What I did get to take home were [...]
How To Survive And Thrive
Good morning... "Love is that condition in the human spirit so profound that it allows one to survive and, better than that, to thrive with passion, compassion, humor, and style," reads the cover quoting wise spiritual mentor Maya Angelou. When I delightfully dished over ninety-nine cents last week at Goodwill, I had no idea this journal would capture notes from my visit with Christian mystic Betty Skinner. Candidly I shared our story with [...]
Why Betty Is In My Bundle
Good morning... God has bound into my spiritual "bundle" ninety-five year old Betty Skinner. Let me tell you why her vibrant life is so very important to me. When I read the original printed version of The Hidden Life, published by Kitty Crenshaw and Dr. Cathy Snapp in 2006, the spirit of the main character, Betty, leapt from the pages to gently hold the hand of my own fainting spirit. In 2015, the [...]