Don’t Wait To Get Worse
Good morning... I love the Thursday Thought my friend Mazi Robinson shared this week. Mazi runs Cultivate Counseling, a wonderful resource for health and well being in our Atlanta community. Here are the encouraging words Mazi shared yesterday. ***** I am a quote person. I love quotes. When I hear a good one, I immediately write it down in the Notes app in my phone. Years ago, I heard comedian Craig Ferguson share [...]
When Caregivers Tire
Good morning... After re-reading yesterday's post, This Unique Summer, I embodied a fresh prayer on my morning walk. "LORD, please help me to be grateful for each creature greeting me on my path, and help me to recognise an angel at every corner." Soon, I happened upon this stack of old tires. Piled up. Strewn about. Disheveled, in disarray. I thought of how sometimes our worries pile up. Our mixed emotions can feel [...]
This Unique Summer
Good morning... As we near the center of this unique summer, I remember back to a prayer I met the day it officially began. ****** A PRAYER TO BEGIN SUMMER For more light in the day, we thank you, For gentle mornings, we thank you, For nighttime conversations, we thank you, For friends and family, we thank you, For gardens and all manner of creatures, we thank you. Help us, Creator and lover [...]
The Injustice Of Old Age
Good morning... As I came upon this grasshopper, motionless on the rocky road, I thought of one of the most sobering segments in Scripture. Powerful and poetic, Ecclesiastes 12:1-7 describes in great detail our natural aging process. Here we visit the verses in the VOICE translation. And so we come to the end of this musing over life. My advice to you is to remember your Creator, God, while you are young: before life gets hard and [...]
This Explosive Week
Good morning... She emailed me after yesterday's post, Imagine Something Better. "So crazy, Sue," she wrote, "my husband and I were having a similar conversation yesterday over coffee after I mentioned a quote I’d recently read that said in previous generations people used to naturally seek and focus on what we have in common with one another, but now it’s the differences that get the focus and immediately separate people and damage community. [...]
Imagine Something Better
Good morning... As we enjoyed a candid discussion on the porch, my husband Steve read aloud yesterday's meditation from Richard Rohr. By request, he forwarded it to me. Now I share the wisdom with you. ****** Imagine Something Better - Author Sarah Bessey names the need to be “for” something good, not merely “against” what is wrong: Imagining and contending for what you hope for in this world is one of the hardest [...]
Death. Dementia. Division.
Good morning... Last week, she shared the tumultuous story of her own grief. "I think I shared this after my Dad passed away last year," she wrote. "It was two days after Dad had passed, and I was managing very difficult family dynamics with my siblings and a painful dementia diagnosis for my mom. I was exhausted and speechless. I genuinely was feeling chest pains, and my friend texted to check on me. [...]
Who Will Save Our Nation?
Good morning... We blink our eyes awake on a very significant day in American history. We celebrate the day the Declaration of Independence was adopted (July 4, 1776) and the United States officially became its own nation. Today is flag. Family. Friends. Freedom. Fireworks. Fashioning with God a fabulous future. The Eternal’s purposes will last to the end of time; the thoughts of His heart will awaken and stir all generations. The nation whose True [...]
Sadness Brings Healing
Good morning... Preparing to see Inside Out 2 in the theatre, I re-watched the original 2015 version of Inside Out. Inside Out tracks the inner workings of the mind of Riley, a young girl who struggles to adapt to her family's move, as five personified emotions guide her thoughts and her actions. One of my favorite parts of the movie is captured in the clip below. After the wooden rocket holding all future [...]
For Those Facing Loss
Good morning... "I shared this on Facebook on Wednesday," emailed a longtime friend. ****** For those facing loss today . . LOVE CAME FIRST "You don’t move on after loss, but you must move with. You must shake hands with grief, welcome her in, for she lives with you now. Pull her a chair at the table and offer her comfort. She is not the monster you first thought her to be. She [...]
I Saw Elizabeth
Good morning... "Can't help but think Elizabeth is the cause of this incredible sunset," texted a friend. "I am in Key West fishing, and I saw her (whom I have never met, but obviously heard a lot about) in a lot of beauty yesterday (Thursday). Praying for the family." "Elizabeth loves the ocean," I explained. "As a family, they recently went to the beach house of a generous friend. We prayed that she [...]
Not Healed But Held
Good morning... "Oh Sue," she wrote from Florida yesterday, "sending so many continued prayers for the loved ones of Elizabeth. So very heartbreaking. I just read Dr. Jim Denison, and the quote below struck a chord - we live a faith that says death is not the final answer, thank you Jesus. This truth is the hope and assurance for all those hurting in these very, very hard days." ****** Joni Eareckson Tada, [...]