An Incredibly Nurturing Luxury
Good morning... I wake in the middle of this night with one word on my mind: retreat. As I am drawn to explore the word on Dictionary.com, I notice that, as a noun, retreat means "a place of refuge, seclusion, privacy." I see that as a verb, retreat means "the act of withdrawing, as into safety, privacy, seclusion." As a place (noun) of experience (verb), I think of Ignatius House Retreat Center, a [...]
Steve Big Adventure
Good morning... In the guiding light of this Passover full moon, we sift through many layers of experience. Tonight my husband Steve and I shared a decade changing birthday celebration with one of the men who went on our Israel 2023 trip. A few people from our group shared in this special evening. The life-changing experience of traveling together - learning, growing, bonding - will forever shape us all in profound and lasting [...]
Wow! What A Gift
Good morning... "Woke to your 'Be Fluent In Blooming' blog," she texted yesterday at 3:51 am. "I'm in the Netherlands seeing the tulips fluently blooming." "Wow! What a gift," I replied. "Each of these photos is a masterpiece." "I just saw the awesomeness of God everywhere!" she gushed. "These were taken at or near Keukenhof Gardens outside of Amsterdam. [...]
Be Fluent In Blooming
Good morning... In the middle of this Earth Day night, I marvel at the cut flowers dropped off on my doorstep. I am nudged to return to the words a friend recently read aloud to me. Again I am touched. I am moved. My breathing slows and deepens. Might you, too, be touched, be moved to breathe differently? ****** Like A Peony by Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer Like the peony that opens and opens [...]
Beth Lives On
Good morning... Yesterday, in the early morning hours, the Spirit nudged me to blog about the inspiration of our dear friend, Beth Jordan. Beth died in the fall of 2017, after thriving through brain cancer for eight fertile years. Throughout the day, many texts and emails came in recounting the joy of journeying with this big-hearted, tiny woman. Together, Beth, her mom, and a group of us at church studied Choose Joy: Because [...]
Remember Beth Jordan?
Good morning... When I wrote the word "tandem" in yesterday's post, my thoughts were drawn back to an inspiring talk given by our dear friend, Beth Jordan. Beth went to heaven on October 11, 2017 after living fully with brain cancer through eight courageous years. (You may want to revisit her obituary.) I vividly remember one special evening with Beth. She was just over a year into her cancer journey (having been given [...]
Make One Subtle Shift
Good morning... After melting down, overwhelmed and discouraged, my friend received this encouragement. "In this life, we are all just walking up the mountain and we can sing as we climb or we can complain about our sore feet, whichever we choose we still gotta do the hike," says the instagram post. "I decided a long time ago, singing makes a lot more sense." Climbing mountains was a topic of conversation in our [...]
Elizabeth Is Beaming
Good morning... "There is a God" is the song highlighted in yesterday's post, Light In Our Darkness. Listed are many ways the presence of God is made evident among us. After singing about hugging a 100 year old tree, the thrill of horseback riding, looking down at the world from an airplane, watching a flock of birds take flight, listening to the river run, catching fireflies, tasting raindrops on your tongue, a seed [...]
Light In Our Darkness
Good morning... What we actually know is such a tiny sliver. What we know we don't know is also quite small. The biggest portion of our hidden, inner world is what we don't know we don't know. Knowledge and mystery lie beyond like beacons of light magnetically drawing us. This slide, used by Michael Begeman in a recent presentation at St. Dunstan's Episcopal Church, helps us to understand our innate drive to constantly [...]
Why I Like Tax Season
Good morning... April 15th comes every year. An anxious date I used to hate, now I kinda enjoy tax season. In recent years, I have noticed that preparing taxes blends really well with Lent and Easter, winter tipping into spring, and my March 23rd birthday season. Since beginning my own small business as a daily blogger in 2015, I have gradually learned to like tax season. Here is why. Being an everyday blogger [...]
Our Unpleasant Emotions
Good morning... "Our normal response to unpleasant emotions is to do whatever we can to push them out of our awareness," says the David Benner quote we read aloud in class. "Something quite remarkable happens when, instead of following this well-worn path, we welcome them as a guest in the home of our self." Of course, this insight led me to share one of my favorite poems. ****** The Guest House by Rumi [...]
We Harvest Hope
Good morning... It happened again. One message miraculously seeped into another. Yesterday's post ended with this wisdom: "As our self-protective shell comes completely undone, everything, everything changes." I pushed "send" on our blog then immediately opened a new email containing the poem below. It's as if the Holy Spirit had more to share with us about the "seed" analogy and the true self gradually maturing in our soul. ****** Whenever you see a [...]