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 [...]
Sometimes Joy Happens
Good morning... "I am going to read a Mary Oliver poem for Thanksgiving as part of our family's blessing," she texted. "Will you take a picture of the poem you choose and share it with me?" I replied. "I will be deeply with you in Spirit." Thursday at 8:41 am, I received her inviting selection. Give in to joy. Don't hesitate. Don't be afraid of its [...]
A Friend Did Not Come Home
Good morning... My endless circle of prayer has another twisted link in it. This morning I deeply pray for a family I do not know. On Thanksgiving morning, our youngest son, Jeremiah, came home after spending a celebratory night at a friend's house. This family's son celebrated similarly, but their son did not come home. He ended up falling asleep beside a friend at another house, and he never woke up. Both students [...]
Adapt. Adapt. Adapt.
Good morning... "I'll bring the flowers," said our new daughter-in-law, as we planned Thanksgiving details. How fabulous! Chandler has begun her new business, Earl Grey Floral, in Athens, Georgia. With a wedding reception in Savannah this weekend, she made us a gorgeous centerpiece with a few of the extra flowers. I can adapt to that! Adapt. This was the word popping in my mind all day yesterday. When the timing didn't work quite [...]
Joy Invades Grief
Good morning... "What do joy and grief have in common?" asks poet Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer. "...The ability to evoke feeling that pushes us and opens us and helps us to be compassionate and helps us fall in love." In the 10-minute video below, released yesterday for this holiday season, Rosemerry reads poems that span grief and joy from her new collection All the Honey. She speaks of what she knows now about grief [...]