One Meaningful Mug
Good Morning... Another benefit of being the first awake on a mountain retreat is the joy of choosing one mug from the many. I picked mine in a groggy state - picked one with words - that's about all I noticed. And its size - it was the biggest of the bunch - more coffee sips to savor. As my eyes adjusted and I enjoyed my second cozy cup, I noticed the words I [...]
Our Stillness Sees God’s Movement
Good Morning... Being the first awake at our writers' retreat offers a plethora of pleasures. I embody Richard Foster's quote: my "spirit is on tiptoe - alert and listening." The air is dark. Alone time, peaceful. Quiet rings in my ears as I perch on the open-air porch, filling my open-blank journal. What is that sound? Critters rub their wings. Birds sing a morning melody. A truck barrels by. One acorn drops. Water drops [...]
Everybody Can Help Somebody
Good Morning... I was the first to wake in my friend's mountain home. Surprise. Surprise. As I shuffled my way down the stairs in the dimly lit dark, I noticed a children's book sitting in a pile on the third step from the bottom: Same Kind of Different As Me For Kids: Everybody Can Help Somebody by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. Picking up the book, I slipped out onto the side porch and [...]
The Blessing Of No Cell Service
Good Morning... As I nestled in for the annual retreat weekend with my Writing Sisters from Northside Church, my cell phone read, "No Service." Initially I was frustrated, afraid I might miss something important with family and friends back home. Yet over time I felt my anxiety melt into the mountains of Highlands, North Carolina, and I settled softly into my sequestered state. I must admit, I began to love being out of touch with the [...]
Protecting Our Gate
Good Morning... Remember the huge tree that fell in our yard during the high, drenching winds of Hurricane Irma? From various tree removal companies, we got estimate after estimate. When we settled on the crew that would care for our old oak, my husband met with the coordinator to discuss all the details. After they talked, my husband told me, "Instead of maneuvering over the large ditch and through the wide opening in our crashed-down fence, [...]
Our Heart’s Fence Has A Gate
Good Morning... “God designed a world where we all live ‘within’ our selves; that is, we inhabit our own souls, and we are responsible for the things that make up ‘us,’” say the authors of our Boundaries book on page 32. “The heart knows its own bitterness and no one shares its joy (Proverbs 14:10). We have to deal with what is in our soul, and boundaries help us to define what this is.” [...]
Beth Jordan Chose Joy
Good morning... I remember our friend Beth Jordan sitting on my living room couch on Cochise Dr., enjoying our Gardenin’ Angels service group in January of 2010. That day, she was frustrated that her bad headache was not responding to Extra Strength Tylenol. A few days later the doctor diagnosed her tumor, and by week’s end she was having her first brain surgery at MD Anderson in Houston, Texas. When I woke yesterday, I [...]
God Winks At The Perfect Time
Good morning... "Sue, I had to tell you about the 'God Wink' we had this morning and how God used you to reach out to us through your blog," she emailed me last week. "We were driving up to Highlands, NC this morning with husband's siblings and families. The purpose of our journey was to have a small ceremony to scatter my father-in-law's ashes where we scattered my mother-in-law's ashes 10 years ago. I used [...]
A Boulder Or A Knapsack?
Good morning... "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ," encourages Galatians 6:2 (NIV). But three verses later, in verse 5, we are told, "...for each one should carry their own load." Which is it? Are we supposed to carry each other's burdens or are we each supposed to carry our own load? A quote we read aloud in class last week sheds light on an important [...]
My Toilet Paper Angel
Good Morning... As I told you, we were down to our last toilet paper roll, doling it out sparingly to make it to the morning shop. After fighting "back to school" traffic to walk with my friend, I shared my drive to recalculate the toilet paper needed to cover the weekly women's groups starting a new fall semester in our home. All in one hectic breath, I ran down the run down of my [...]
Hospice Provides A Soft Landing
Good Morning... “Sue, thank you for bringing Hospice to the forefront of prayer,” one subscriber wrote. “My dad founded Hospice Atlanta Center and was the first medical director there. For so many, ‘hospice’ has such a negative connotation. Yet, it is a ministry of sorts. My dad used to always call it a way to provide people with their ‘soft landing.’ Their way to die with respect in comfort surrounded by those they love. [...]
Recalculating Our Needs
Good Morning... Okay. So I bumped into one weird word again two days in a row. In response to my post "Why Doesn't God Speak Like Siri?" one subscriber wrote: "Mostly I've been hearing my God Garmin say, "Recalculating, recalculating." The next day, after teaching class to moms of high school seniors, one woman stayed back to share a revelation, "I guess if our son chooses to go to a big football school, we [...]