When We Share Our Stories
Good morning... On Wednesday night in the Northside Church sanctuary, Ron Greer shared wisdom with us from his new book The Quiet House: Reflections on the Loss of a Spouse. He said, "This book is like a parable, a story with a lesson. Parable also means 'placing beside,' a story we place beside the story of our lives. In The Quiet House, my story is placed beside your story, and we parallel each [...]
We Heal What We Feel
Good morning... "We heal what we feel," said Ron Greer, author of The Quiet House. I felt a lot when my dad said last night, "Today, I got a tree at Loews." Together, we reminisced about our annual trek around a tree farm as a family, cutting down our favorite Christmas bush (it was always wider than it was high), and having friends stop by to see our unusually large tree, year after [...]
How Is My Mom?
Good morning... Yesterday was a very long day. 7:00 am: I spoke by phone with my mom, my dad, and my sister in the hospital waiting room. As mom was wheeled back for her five to six hour surgery, "We love you," filled her ears, her mind, and her heart. 12:15 pm, my dad's first text came: "She went into surgery at 9:06 and hasn't gone to the recovery room yet." 3:06 pm, six [...]
My Mom’s Surgery Today
Good morning... The wordless prayer card above sits beside me in the living room as I write. The man depicted looks so much like my dad reading the paper at the kitchen table in their sunny Ohio villa. "Good Life," the main heading in the newspaper, is something my parents have enjoyed for 85 and 86 years. The Anne Nelson angel figures to the left embody the everlasting love filling my mom and [...]
I Want It All
Good morning... Today's block on my calendar whispers, "Last Quarter," with a tiny sketch of a moon similar to the image above. Left half dark. Right half light. Now, to the light of a lamp in the dark hours of this night, I am drawn back to two quotes we read aloud yesterday during our final Monday class celebration. We discussed the wisdom we will carry forward from Learning to Walk in the [...]
End And Begin At Rest
Good morning... Last Wednesday, we ended our class for the young moms at Northside Church with a simple, low-key, makeshift party. Pretzels and pistachios. Carrots and spicy almond Bitchin' Sauce. Apple cider, seltzer waters and gooey homemade brownies. Easy, honest conversation rounded out our bonding semester, as we sat on the floor, picnic style, in the children's wing of our church. "You looked so relaxed," one woman said. "I just had to take [...]
I Have No Idea
Good morning... Having journeyed together through Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor, we arrive at the final poem. Might all of our learning culminate here? My Lord God, I have no idea where I am going . . . and you will never leave me to face my perils alone. Day and night, night and day, might journeying with God be enough? [...]
Being Stuck Feels Yuck
Good morning... "God Works While We Wait," says the ornament in a pristine box. But waiting feels like being stuck, and being stuck feels yuck. "If you get stuck, lower your standards," my mentor said nonchalantly. ***** If You Get Stuck by Sue Allen If you get stuck, lower your standards. Breathe deep, intentionally. Open space. Wait. Wait still. Wait more. Slow down to the speed of God. When the wind picks up, [...]
Rest. Chat. Walk. Read.
Good morning... As I emerged from a time of deep down prayer, I noticed anew the layers of light living in our home. How often do we take time to notice the layers, the light, the power of life? Elizabeth, a young mom of three who is undergoing intense treatment for her colon cancer, wrote something in a recent post to which I now return. She wrote: "I’ve struggled with feeling like, 'What [...]
Amid Life’s Complexity
Good morning... Amid life's complexity, I choose a mug each morning. Black coffee is warm and welcoming, a half-caff companion. Here's a perfect mug choice for this very day. Misshapen and made by a stranger named Jillian, this Goodwill treasure understands the patchiness of our lives, our one-of-a-kind fragments oddly molded together. Naked. Stained crimson. Random parts form our whole. These are some of the many people I now cup in my prayers. [...]
More Than 1,000 Thanks
Good morning... This week I received a "thank you" email from LaTonya Gates, Founder and Director of PAWkids. She expressed gratitude for our generous donation of $1,000 to cover the cost of four students visiting Mississippi Valley State University on Homecoming weekend, October 13th-15th. Larenzia Lawrence, LaTonya's daughter and Director of the PAWkids after-school program, led the amazing trip to her alma mater, inspiring the kids to seriously consider college in their future. [...]
The Power Of Hope
Good morning... Together we explored images of hope. Discovered in our self-protective cave, we are touched by cascading light. How might hope be painted on the rubble of our daily lives? We peer through a peephole of possibility. New life sprouts from the clouded mystery. Reaching from opposite sides, together we hold a darkened heart. What our lives need now is hope, hope, hope. Meandering through the day, I happened upon a music [...]