Be Captivated
Good morning... "Oh my gosh," I emailed the Creative Director collaborating with God and me to write from scratch our Gift from the Sea interactive study. "We simply MUST finish this powerful Week Four material with one awe-inspiring song!" (See the music video below.) After being captivated by this video, I thought, "No wonder I feel like I am birthing five babies every week. Look at the Daddy of these newborns!" The most common [...]
Our Sturdy Web
Good morning... She sent me a photo of the marvelous, massive web in her back yard. Fascinated, I googled, "How do spiders make webs?" I found some cool videos and an article explaining the four step process. The spider starts by creating a length of sticky silk which it dangles from a point. It is so light it gets caught by the breeze and sticks to a second point, the anchor point. This first [...]
Beneath A Full Moon
Good morning... Thank you, brave friends. Thank you for engaging in these challenging conversations with me. I have learned much from our two previous posts, "Who Will You Vote For?" and Let's Talk Politics. As many of us acknowledge, we naturally tend to gravitate toward like minded people, and our perspective is broadened as we listen to one another. Resting together under a big, bold full moon, one of your responses beams brightest [...]
Let’s Talk Politics
Good morning... There is a delicate pathway forward through our various sands of thought. As you can imagine, an avalanche of passionate responses were set off by yesterday's post "Who Will You Vote For?" I am choosing to share some with you anonymously, just so we can hold open the arms of our heart to receive all of these cells of belief, like multiple grains of sand on our common vast shore. Cell [...]
“Who Will You Vote For?”
Good morning... We wrapped up in blankets and sat in the cool autumn air beneath our back porch. Leftover stress lingered from the night before; we both had witnessed the ugly verbal street fight called a presidential debate. The leaf blowers from our neighbor's lawn guys were screaming loudly, relentlessly. It was symbolically perfect for the moment at hand. Noise. Noise. Noise. Quietly she said, "I'm having a hard time hearing God." I [...]
Pain. Fear. Anxiety.
Good morning... As we walked our dog along the bank of the Chattahoochee River, my husband told me about a Richard Rohr meditation that helped him visual prayer in a helpful new way. At my request, he shared with me Rohr's writing, and now I pass the important portion along to you. ****** Excerpt from Richard Rohr's morning mediation Transforming Our Pain, September 18, 2020 People who don’t pray can’t live the Gospel because [...]
Slow Me Down
Good morning... "The second week of our Gift from the Sea study brings to my mind a poem," she writes. "Slow Me Down, Lord" has graced my home and heart for many years and is a constant source of comfort and peace with the busyness of life." ****** SLOW ME DOWN, LORD (by Wilfred Arlan Peterson) Slow me down, Lord. Ease the pounding of my heart by the quieting of my mind. [...]
The Power Of Patience
Good morning... "The mind wakes, comes to life again," writes Anne Morrow Lindbergh in Gift from the Sea. "Not in a city sense - no - but beach-wise. It begins to drift, to play, to turn over in gentle careless rolls like those lazy waves on the beach. One never knows what chance treasures these easy unconscious rollers may toss up, on the smooth white sand of the conscious mind; what perfectly round [...]
Return To The Road
Good morning... Our Last Friday monthly spiritual direction group met for the first time yesterday. I had not invited a group of women to our home since COVID closed everything down in March. Meeting outside beneath our back porch, face to face felt so good. Face to face and soul to soul felt even better. Trusting the Lord to choose our opening reading, I was amazed at the two pages of wisdom God handpicked [...]
Taking The Day Off
Good morning... "Had you on my mind this morning," she texted, "and wanted to share this lovely poem that reminds me of you." In stillness we sense the movement of God, gentle, steady, expansive. Carried on the inner voice of Love, we travel a terrific distance. Attention, all! See the marvels of God! He plants flowers and trees all over the earth... “Step out of the traffic! Take a long, loving [...]
I Am Uncomfortable
Good morning... From Canada she sent a nurturing nugget. I must say, "Personally I am wading through the uncomfortable waters of unfamiliarity." Seeing footage of people carrying long guns in the chaos of American streets. My heart slowly growing awareness of the unequal treatment of people of color and the ugly shades of ongoing injustice. Policemen, most who conscientiously dedicate their lives for the good of our communities, are being shot [...]
You Oughta See Her Fly
Good morning... "So beautiful, Sue," she emailed after yesterday's post, On Broken Wings. "Do you know Martina McBride's wonderful song Broken Wings? I'm singing it to myself now. Xxxx." I had never met the song before, and when I googled it, the music video below popped up, a music video released on October 2nd, 2009. Sometimes our broken wings look like manipulative anger, self-centered control, and overpowering violence, subtle or overt. Sometimes our [...]