One Creative Hug
Good morning... Sitting social distanced beneath our back porch, she pulled out her phone and texted me photos of a fun activity she had done with her grandchildren, tracing their outstretched arms, painting and cutting out the paper arms, and sending them to their great grandmother with a personal love poem. She gave me permission to share this creative process with you. What [...]
It’s Our Neighbors’ Table!
Good morning... Walking our dog Tate, I came upon a young mom and two adorable daughters, quite likely around ages four and six. "It's our neighbors' table!" the youngest blurted out, excited about the newly placed wooden table with two long benches sitting beneath the trees at the end of their driveway. Talking back and forth a while, I admired their creative way of welcoming connection during these cloistering COVID holidays. "We're decorating [...]
I Didn’t Expect To Cry
Good morning... I didn't expect to cry when it was my turn to share. The four of us have connected over the phone for two hours every month since finishing our spiritual direction training program in August of 2017. We live in different towns, in different states, but at 9:00 am on the third Monday of each month, we take turns listening and sharing from the deep, sacred reservoir carved out between us. [...]
Encouragement From Steve
Good morning... It seems many in our online community enjoy the simple and uplifting chapel messages my husband Steve shares, virtually due to COVID, with his community of upper school students, faculty, and administrators. Steve's weekly chapel talks are a lot like the children's messages I experienced in our Lutheran Church growing up in Berea, Ohio. We kids in the church family would meander up to the front of the sanctuary and sit [...]
Encouragement From Steve
Good morning... It seems many in our online community enjoy the simple and uplifting chapel messages my husband Steve shares, virtually due to COVID, with his community of upper school students, faculty, and administrators. Steve's talks are a lot like the weekly children's messages we used to experienced in our Lutheran Church growing up in Berea, Ohio. We kids in the church family would meander up to the front of the sanctuary and [...]
The Joy In Grief
Good morning... I love walking with my friend who is a retired middle school english teacher. One never knows what fresh wisdom will bubble up between us. Here is a prime example. Discussing what she is learning from her study of the book of Ecclesiastes, she said, "I am trying to make peace with the effervescence of life." When is the last time you heard someone use the word effervescence casually in a [...]
I Am Loved
Good morning... "I am loved, I am loved by You," this chorus rises up repeatedly within me. Now it's your turn to check out the music video below, which depicts for me the kingdom of heaven on earth. If all of these unique people, the men and the women, the black and the white, the young and the old, the large and the small, are saturated by the love of God just as [...]
Things Fall Off
Good morning... Led by the Spirit, an altar is being created in our foyer with all of the tiny treasures I find on my walks. Things fall off. It's nature's way. Things fall off. Colorful feathers, black acorns, buckeye nuts, chipped off hearts made of bark or stone. When I walked and talked with a friend recently, we found a few cool feathers and what she called a "Grateful Dead" leaf. [...]
Where Will We Land?
Good morning... "Double sunrise in Japan." My mind woke in a haze with this strange phrase, then I drifted back into my second segment of sleep. Waking for the day, I remembered those four words, "Double sunrise in Japan." Somehow it seemed centered on a celebration of sorts? So my curiosity did what it so often does, I googled "Double sunrise in Japan" to see what popped up. I learned from Wikipedia that [...]
Hope Remains
Good morning... My husband and I watched a couple taking engagement photos on the beach. The rising sun peaked out of the clouds. The waves ebbed and flowed in sync. The perfect dreams of these young strangers were played themselves out before our eyes. Thinking back to the day before, Steve had performed a wedding for another beautiful couple, guiding them through the ominous promise, "...for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, [...]
Radiate Hope
Good morning... As I walked to the beach hoping for a photo shoot with the rising sun, I thought, "It's so dark and there are so many thick clouds, I am not sure I will be able to see the sun rise on this day." As the first sliver of the sun peaked through the horizon, a pondering prayer piqued in me. "God, if Your light can break through the darkness [...]
We Wake In Oneness
Good morning... Waking this morning at 3:24 am, I google "When is sunrise in Palm Beach, Florida?" The answer is "6:40 am." For three delightful hours, I will enjoy silence and solitude with God on this Sabbath morn before I walk out to the sand and do a photo shoot on my phone with the rising sun. Why do I tell you this? This is a wedding weekend, the second ceremony performed by [...]