The Moon Mirrors Our Soul
Good morning... Waking in the middle of the night, I am surprised by the brilliant light resting on our couch. I snap the photo above then walk around to find more creative light streaking our floor and rug. As if on a scavenger hunt, I follow the glow onto the back porch. Voila, I discover the source. A big round moon hangs high in the dark. [...]
My Mom Said YES!!!
Good morning... My mom returned home to their independent living villa in Olmsted Falls, Ohio. For nearly a month she slept away from my dad, from hospital stay, through surgery, ICU, colostomy bag, to recovery at the skilled nursing center at their senior living community. Yesterday my mom settled into her favorite chair, grateful and content. My sister snapped these pictures of her homecoming and sent them with a text, "Granny's back home [...]
Caught Up In Life’s Whirlwind
Good morning... I feel caught up in a real life whirlwind. People I love are experiencing high highs - births, weddings, birthdays, a calm return home, a successful heart transplant, a trip to Uganda to nurture single moms and widows. Others I love are facing low lows - repeated scans and a wait for results, the complications of a colostomy bag, reoccurrences of cancer (bladder, brain, colon), the losses of Alzheimers, the natural [...]
Heal + Thrive – You Are Loved
Good morning... Up in the middle of the night, I tried to write a message about the life-altering week of my friend LaTonya Gates, founder and director of PAWkids. After hours of crafting and re-crafting, the message oddly zapped away. Twice. The words and images, touched by some human error of mine, simply evaporated. Twice. So, I gave up and I climbed back in bed, figuring God had a higher purpose for a [...]
Savor Sweetness In The Dark
Good morning... After our Friday morning discussion of Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor, I looked down and saw the strange sight above. A cut out, curled up magazine page caught randomly in the corner of our patio where the fourteen of us had just finished class. From where did this image blow in? Pictured was a fork. A piece of rocky-road brownie. A thick wave of peanut butter [...]
A New Heart For James LeBow
Good morning... If all goes as planned, James LeBow will experience a successful heart transplant today at Vanderbilt Heart Center in Nashville, Tennessee. For many years, his wife Brooke has been a beloved member of our women's studies at Northside Church. Mission Circle gatherings and Sunday afternoon study each month. Wednesday morning and Friday morning studies each week. Five years ago, I wrote about a basket of love assembled by our Friday class, [...]
Do You Need Me? I Am There
Good morning... Yesterday a faraway friend suggested I explore a poem entitled "I Am There." So I googled the creative expression and found this fascinating gift. ****** "I Am There" by James Dillet Freeman Do you need Me? I am there. You cannot see Me, yet I am the light you see by. You cannot hear Me, yet I speak through your voice. You cannot feel Me, yet I am the power at [...]
Grateful For My Mom And Dad
Good morning... As we wake on World Gratitude Day 2023, I am totally thankful for unplanned God-moments like the one I experienced yesterday morning. Okay. So we have random books strewn throughout our home. With six people having lived in our family for over the past twenty-eight years, we have remnants of days gone by littering our living space. Landing mysteriously on our coffee table, the stray book above just caught my attention. [...]
Happiness Approaches Quietly
Good morning... I pull out my copy of In the Shelter by Padraig O Tuama and turn to page 25. I read on from the sentence that first captivated me on Sunday. "Good writing, the adage tells us, is when we read something we've always known but never been able to put to words," writes Padraig. "I remember the moment I read Jane Kenyon's poem. I understood the quiet approach of happiness. I [...]
Our Kick-Off Cook-Out
Good morning... Enjoying our new Monday afternoon time slot, we kicked-off our first PAWkids gathering with an energizing cook-out. Harnessing the power of creative expression, we made a "We Love PAWkids" banner, played tic-tac-toe, traced with stencils/makers/paint sticks, and decorated everything (and everyone) with heart stickers. After dinner, we played fun games with a beach ball and a parachute. [...]
We Are A Work Of Art
Good morning... "Good writing, the adage tells us, is when we read something we've always known but never been able to put into words," explains Padraig O Tuama, the inspiring author of the delightful book we are reading for our Sunday afternoon monthly study, In the Shelter: Finding a Home in the World. Beside this profound sentence, I jot in the margin: "Good comedy. Good poetry. Good singing. Good painting. Good movie-making. Good [...]
Pull Me Out Of The Noise
Good morning... In our blog posts this week, we have been exploring the tangled-up places inside of us, culminating in yesterday's post, In This Chaos, Where Is God? Without skipping a beat one reader wrote: "I just read your morning offering and then opened this..." "I can smooth out all the tangled-up places, including those in your mind and heart," says God through the image above from the Sarah Young Jesus Calling message [...]