Good morning... Last weekend, while watching a string of great football games, I noticed on all of the players' helmets two simple words: CHOOSE LOVE. Wondering the meaning behind this conscious decision, I googled, "choose love on football helmets" and this information popped up. "Choose Love" on NFL helmets and in end zones is a message of compassion, [...]
Good morning... This week in class, we read aloud these words from the prologue of our book, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May. ****** Wintering is a season in the cold. It is a fallow period in your life when you're cut off from the world, feeling rejected, sidelined, blocked from [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, after I spoke aloud the final prayer at the end of our Ministry of Movement fitness class, I intended to walk with a friend. God had a different plan. I left the church and drove to my friend's house. She greeted me with a long, loving hug, expressing her deep sorrow over the violent murder [...]
Good morning... After yesterday's post, Stoop Down. Reach Out., a friend texted me immediately: "Oh my goodness!!!! I'm so sad over here. When do you go downtown for group? I can send a zucchini bread for Mike Mike! (The same delicious zucchini bread she made our friend's 80th birthday party last Thursday.) Maybe if you go to drop [...]
Good morning... If you have ever been to PAWkids, you know Mike Mike. Humble and gentle, with a huge heart, Mike Mike is around to help in any way needed. On Saturday morning, Mike Mike found his mom dead in her bed, stabbed in her neck and her head. What a horrendous tragedy! "This family is so ingrained [...]
Good morning... On this day when we celebrate the non-violent movement of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., I am trying to process the violent death of a beloved woman in the Grove Park neighborhood of our city. The last time I gathered with our therapeutic community group at PAWkids, we sent flowers home with Mike Mike, the group [...]
Good morning... "Part of hearing God is listening," she said, filled with Holy Spirit wisdom. Those in our monthly spiritual growth group automatically responded, "That's profound. Can you say the sentence again?" "Part of hearing God is listening," she repeated herself. I typed the six words into my phone, knowing I might share them with you. "Words can [...]
Good morning... As we came in from the sunny winter cold to celebrate a friend's 80th birthday with our Thursday morning class, I received photos from Ohio. "We have about 5" of snow and most schools are closed," my dad texted. "It's much worse in the snow belt east of Cleveland." "Snow days off school," was one thing [...]
Good morning... On Sunday at church, I noticed a left-handed first grader filling out a coloring sheet entitled "Things I like to do in winter." After the service, I asked a staff person in the Children's Ministry if I could have a copy of the coloring sheet to use with our first classes of the semester. We are [...]
Good morning... As I sit beneath the growing weight of our now 40 lb. pup, Cami, I think about Philip Yancey and his wife of 55 years. My prayers go up like incense on their behalf as they drop from the public eye to work on their daily life, a life broken by his eight year affair. In [...]
