The Art Of Prayer
Good morning... For over thirty years, I have written in a journal most every day. A journal has been with me through our four years of infertility, grieving our four miscarriages. A journal has been with me through four full-term pregnancies and four natural childbirths. A journal has walked with me down the valley of depression and up the mountain path toward abundant living, more than once. It dawns on me now that the [...]
His Hands On My Head
Good morning... A passing comment by Dr. Cathy Snapp at our Awake To Wellness Women’s Retreat unloosened an important memory, floating it to the top of my conscious awareness before forming it into yesterday’s post, Feeling Healing. Cathy said something like this: “Sometimes I envision Jesus putting his hands on my head, sending light into my brain, loosening my fear, my worry, my obsessive sense of ‘not enough.’ Tears are the seeds of our [...]
Feeling Healing
Good morning... During our Spiritual Direction training program, our visiting professor Jan Johnson called me forward. She invited me to sit in a chair in front of the whole class. Jan stood beside me, leaning in close, gently laying her hands on my head, softly stroking my hair, as she slowly recited the 23rd Psalm from the Message translation. God, my shepherd! I don’t need a thing. You have bedded me down in lush [...]
Feasting With Our Inner Family
Good morning... “Genuine transformational knowing of self always involves encountering and embracing previously un-welcomed parts of self,” says depth psychologist and beloved author David Benner. “While we tend to think of ourselves as a single, unified self, which we call “I” is really a family of many part-selves. That in it self is not a particular problem. The problem lies in the fact that many of these part-selves are unknown to us. Even though [...]
God’s Pregnant Creation Within and Around
Good morning... “Most of us who are searching for spiritual connection spend too much time looking up at the sky and wondering why God is so far away,” says Brene Brown on page 112 of The Gifts of Imperfection. “God lives within us, not above us. Sharing our gifts and talents with the world is the most powerful source of connection with God.” I would change one word from this quote to give an [...]
Jesus’ Final Words
Good morning... I woke to a short, intriguing email from my 22 year old son. He wrote: "Interesting 8 minute audio clip, 'What's the Last Thing You Would Tweet?' Curious what you think about it, and what your final 140 character message might be." I touched on the link and read through John Piper's thought process as he decided what final message he would tweet to the world. Then my mind went to an [...]
Her Tattoo Is Biblical
Good morning... As she cut my hair, I read the tattoo on the underside of her left arm: “The happiest girls are the prettiest,” says the tattoo on the underside of her left arm. I thought to myself, “That statement is actually quite biblical.” Proverbs 15:13a (NLT) says simply: “A glad heart makes a happy face.” The second half of that proverb is also true: “A broken heart crushes the spirit.” God revives our [...]
Anxiety And Peace Are Contagious
Good morning... “I try to be slow to respond and quick to think,” says beloved author and human behavior researcher Brene Brown. “I also stay very mindful about the effect that calm has on an anxious person or situation. A panicked response produces more panic and more fear. As psychologist and writer Harriet Lerner says, ‘Anxiety is extremely contagious, but so is calm.’ The question becomes, Do we want to infect people with more [...]
How Can God Change Our World
Good morning... It was not until the final week of class that I understood exactly why God had chosen The Book of Hygge for our Moms of Lovett Seniors Study. (Find the first words in the book quoted in yesterday’s post, Hygge: God’s Remedy.) Once we hosted our Awake To Wellness Women’s Retreat, a fresh insight dawned on me. When each of us chooses to spend 25 to 30 seconds focusing on something beautiful, [...]
Hygge: God’s Remedy
Good morning... Always looking for the next book to teach, I mostly chose one book because it was short and simple, it had intriguing quotes and soulful pictures, and it was on the sale table at a local, eclectic store. I fell in love with the first words of the introduction: “Hygge (pronounced “hoo-gah”) is a quality of presence and an experience of belonging and togetherness. It is a feeling of being warm, safe, [...]
Create A Clearing
Good morning... “Stillness is not about focussing on nothingness; it’s about creating a clearing. It’s opening up an emotionally clutter-free space and allowing ourselves to feel and think and dream and question,” writes author Brene Brown on page 108 of The Gifts of Imperfection. Stillness. Create a clearing. Open up emotionally. Protect clutter-free inner space. Allow feeling, thinking, dreaming, questioning. Focussing our awareness on God’s presence with us, in 25 to 30 second increments, [...]
Notice God Now
Good morning... I am deeply grateful pianist Dana Cunningham sent us another one of the poems she read aloud to us at our Awake To Wellness Women’s Retreat. In the nest of right now, create a clutter-free inner space for William’s words to resonate in your soul. ****** You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford You Reading This, Be Ready Starting here, what do you want to remember? How sunlight creeps along a [...]