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 [...]
Who Is In Your Bundle?
Good morning... Years ago I learned of a Quaker concept called "bundle." Over the years, God has enhanced my small seed of understanding. The main gist is that we are all born into this world wired for a unique "bundle" of people, people we are designed to spiritually influence and to be influenced by over our lifetime. Our "bundle" is marked by a mutually beneficial giving and taking, a supernatural ebbing and flowing. [...]
Telling Our Story
Good morning... "Dear Friend," she wrote after yesterday's post My Five Year Headache. "About the time you wrote to me, I was stirring and ready to slip downstairs for coffee and a chapter or two from my current book Lighthousekeeping. I made coffee and read these words: Tell me a story . . . What story, child? One that begins again. That's the story of life. But is it the story of my [...]
My Five Year Headache
Good morning... This morning, I have no idea why my computer returned itself to emails from this very same week five years ago. Back then, a subscriber to our everyday blog had sent me the photo above from her back yard in Florida. In retrospect, now I realize I felt much like the silhouette of this lone little tree trying to make sense of our mammoth, multi-faceted God. The life of my good [...]
The Respite Of Rain
Good morning... Rain whispers, "Stay home. Keep warm. Relax inside." Yet as I am home, I think of the vulnerable. As I keep warm, I pray for those who are cold. As I relax inside, I hold in my heart those tossed and torn up by stormy unrest. As rain provides respite for me, I experience a multitude of nurturing synonyms. breather breathing space downtime [...]
Life’s Lovely Layers
Good morning... Yesterday morning's rising sun was hidden in a sea of thick, rainy grey. Then as we marveled at last night's setting sun, a Bible verse came to mind. In Genesis 8:22, God makes a powerful promise: "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.” I got to thinking, "There are so many lovely layers of life in [...]
Artificial Craves Authentic
Good morning... We can get lost in the lure of artificial lighting. Smile. Fit in. Look good. When the world’s nonstop neon eventually burns us out, we begin to crave an enduring source of light. Haggai 1:5-7 in the New International Version understands our dilemma. Now this is what the Lord Almighty says: “Give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You [...]