Our Final Blog Post
Good morning... With me taking a Sabbath rest from writing each Sunday, this is our final blog post for 2023. I feel drawn to pass along the encouragement a friend shared with me. In the midst of her journey with breast cancer, she wrote, "Yesterday I read the whole book Chris Beats Cancer by Chris Wark. It was so good, and this gift was in it. Healing. Guidance. Abundance. Security. These words brought [...]
The Magic Of Just Being With
Good morning... "I am feeling the magic of just being with, fully present," I email a friend whose father passed away this year. This week I am hanging out with my dad in Ohio as we support my mom, who is slowly recovering in the hospital from a life-threatening infection. "Keeping quiet. Letting things unfold. Trusting God with it all. Good lessons for much of life," I reflect. "Praying for you Sue," she [...]
Face To Face With My Mom And Dad
Good morning... Last week at their senior living community, my dad performed the role of "Tommy-O, the elf" and my mom was his happy sidekick. What a fun photo! This week, my mom is recovering in a hospital room near my hometown of Berea, Ohio. On Christmas Eve, she was not herself, exhausted and lethargic. The ambulance came to their independent living villa to transport her to the ER, through the ICU, and [...]
Grief Is Like Making Soup
Good morning... On my way to church to work the second shift of worship services on Christmas Eve, I enjoyed dropping off a container of homemade soup for a feverish friend who was home sick with COVID. I love making and sharing soup regularly. The thick, rich smells. The warm wafting comfort. This week's one-of-a-kind concoction included boiled broth made from turkey bones, various veggies, morsels of meat, and savory spices. The slow [...]
“She Is A Very Sick Woman”
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I scroll through photos I snapped last month while visiting my parents in Ohio. As my mom and I went on a walk through the welcoming sidewalks of their senior living community, I took the picture above at one of her favorite resting spots on a bench outside the villa of a friend. Visiting these happy photos counterbalances my mixed emotions from yesterday. At [...]
This Bittersweet Christmas
Good morning... If we were to send out a Christmas card this year, we would likely share this sweet family photo from the September day our son Kyler married his amazing wife Chandler. What you would not see is the bitter of the hurricane sweeping through Charleston, S.C. two days before, or the bitter of my parents missing the wedding with my mom in the ICU following an unexpected surgery in Ohio, or [...]
Trusting That Less Is More
Good morning... Amid the traffic and the long lines snaking through every store, I am convicted once again, "Sometimes less is more." Less worry. Less rushing. Less anger. Less impressing. Less "My way or the highway." God, what might it mean for me to live this day really trusting that less is more? Trust in your money and down you go! Trust in God and flourish as a tree! (Proverbs 11:28, TLB). ...Sue... [...]
Reflecting On The Slower Things
Good morning... When I wake from my second sleep, I do not flip on the lights. Instead, I plug in the single strand on our Christmas tree. Striking a yummy smelling match, I quietly light candles. One. Two. Three. Four. In darkness, we begin each day. The natural rising of the sun quietly sheds light. This week, I received a beautiful email explaining the history of a gift given through my longtime friend. [...]
Audrey And The Hour Glass
Good morning... I love hanging up Christmas cards from people we have made memories with over the years. One of my favorites from this season is the smiling faces of the DeShelter family, a close-knit family who has recently endured two rounds of Audrey's risky radioactive cancer treatment at Children's Healthcare of Philadelphia. Thriving through it all, don't they look amazing? A small group of us, the Fab Five friends, have walked closely [...]
SHOW UP With Your Gifts
Good morning... I love reading the wise words of Howard Thurman etched in the handwriting of my friend. "You are the only you that has ever lived; your idiom is the only idiom of its kind in all existences, and if you cannot hear the sound of the genuine in you, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that someone else pulls." Thurman wrote these enduring [...]
I’m Moody This Christmas
Good morning... A dear friend regularly drops off poems in my mailbox at Northside Church. He slipped in a few important ones this week, poems I picked up following yesterday's loving funeral. These words struck me as essential for this day, for these challenging times, for this unique season of life. As I light a candle in the center of our living room, I relate to [...]
Relax Into The Power Of Peace
Good morning... After walking with a friend, she took me upstairs and showed me this painting she had been given for Christmas. Magical and mesmerizing, we discussed what we noticed in this unique piece of art. A golden heart dripping with lemon drop light. Various swirling colors, playing, mixing, blending. The movement of dark and light, muted and bright, trailing down, rising up, spreading out. Now I revisit the picture of this painting [...]