Will You Fall Upward?
Good morning... "I love, love, love this!" she wrote after yesterday's post, Take Three Steps. "I tend to get a little glum in the fall. As the days grow shorter, the light changes, the energy of spring and summer fades, I feel a little sadness. I have been reading our Richard Rohr book, Falling Upward: A Spirituality for the Two Halves of Life, and following along with your daily blog. Both resources have [...]
Take Three Steps
Good morning... "As I read this morning's message," one of you wrote after reading of the "hidden wholeness" of fall, "I thought of the Bible study I am doing, The Good and Beautiful God series. Might we look at autumn as an opportunity to shed old self-protective habits to make room for the Holy Spirit within us to make new habits grow? So the browning, the dying, the falling off of old bad habits [...]
Here Is Where We Differ
Good morning... Okay. I have to admit. I left out one sentence from the Parker Palmer quote highlighted in our previous two posts. This sentence stood out to me like a sore thumb. We all differ in myriad ways, and this one sentence sums up one way my belief differs from the truth expressed on page 98 of Let Your Life Speak. "I am drawn down by the prospect of death," Parker Palmer [...]
Held In Hidden Wholeness
Good morning... To the gathering of over fifty Lovett School moms, I read aloud the Parker Palmer quote saturating yesterday's post, The First Day Of Fall. Before I shared his gorgeous words, I handed out a blank piece of paper, I instructed the women to divide their paper in half, and I asked them to place at the top of their page "Fall 2019," reminding them that this autumn would never come again [...]
This First Day Of Fall
Good morning... Today we welcome the first official day of fall 2019. As I prepare this morning's kick-off talk for the Lovett Moms In Prayer group, I reflect again on two pages from a book I taught in our living room last fall semester. "Autumn is a season of great beauty," I will read aloud Let Your Life Speak wisdom to this gracious group of praying moms. "But it is also a season [...]
Savor Sabbath: God Saves
Good morning... This week we are savoring an image sparking intimate trust with our living LORD. On Monday, we learned: The Lord your God is with you . . . even when you make mistakes. He is mighty to save (deliver, make whole) . . . even and especially when you fail. He will take great delight in you . . . even when you can’t stand yourself. He will quiet you with [...]
When I Went Under
Good morning... I responded to the reader who wrote yesterday's post, A Hand Reached Down. Her frightening memory as a child sparked a similar story from my childhood. "I too have a falling in the pool experience when I was a toddler," I responded to her email. "Oddly, my memory was laced with a sense of complete peace. Sinking slowly. Looking up. Waiting for rescue." In 2014, this story from my childhood was the [...]
A Hand Reached Down
Good morning... "Though I have forwarded your blog to my family members more times than I can count, and though I have silently responded to you in my brain just as many times, I have never sent an actual response." She admitted, "It’s intimidating to put down thoughts, but I’m responding to the post of Monday. Because of a stomach bug, I am behind on reading your messages, so I opened up this [...]
A Friend Touches Friends
Good morning... Before Saturday's memorial service for a young man who is deeply missed, one of his high school friends did her healing part to share the words on her heart, offering a touching tribute to her three classmates who have died since their graduation in 2017. Here are segments of her loving words. ****** We sat in the auditorium together, butterflies in our stomachs and dreams on our hearts. I think back to that [...]
Our Conversation Continues
Good morning... After I shared with you an image and a paraphrase of Zepheniah 3:17 from the inspirational September newsletter sent by one of my spiritual mentors, Jan Johnson, one of you shared with me encouraging words from the September newsletter of one of your spiritual mentors, Amy Julia Becker. ****** Dear friends, What do speaking to 70 independent school faculty members, visiting the US southern border with Mexico, and sending a child [...]
Our God Says This
Good morning... Through one intimate image our God speaks volumes. What did each of us need to hear from this captivating picture shared in yesterday's post? "In this picture Jesus is barefoot, coming to me. His hand slices through the transparent barrier between heaven and earth. He sees me in my drowning state and has the strength and compassion to pull me up. The light of God is above him, and with this [...]
What Do You Need To Hear?
Good morning... At 1:23 am this morning, I received the monthly devotional newsletter sent from Jan Johnson, a California professor who taught our spiritual direction training program at Ignatius House Retreat Center here in Atlanta, the author of a beloved book we later studied as a class in our living room, When The Soul Listens. One image Jan shares in her newsletter continues to capture my attention. When your own soul listens to [...]