What Work Is Mine To Do?
Good morning... There is enough chaotic doom and gloom to fill every ounce of every day, but my attention is not drawn there. My focus deepens from the surface of things to form a quiet prayer, "LORD, what is my work to do in this wounding world?" A poem by Mary Oliver, read aloud to me by a soul friend, helps to put flesh on the bones of who I am. Now let's [...]
Are You Sheepish?
Good morning... "Ba-ba. Ba-ba," repeated our two year old neighbor as she came to visit our herd of guest sheep. Hosting ten sheep for about two weeks will be a really fun adventure. So far, the most intriguing thing has been to watch the nurturing qualities the flock has drawn out of our two dogs. Tate and Gracie have loved peacefully resting beside these ivy-eating creatures. The photos we have snapped are priceless. [...]
The Sheep Are Coming!
Good morning... "The sheep are coming! The sheep are coming!" read yesterday's family text from my husband Steve. The fencing has been erected and the sign for John the shepherd's business is ready to be placed in our front yard. Today is the day our flock of sheep with arrive to take care of our overgrowth, our pesky weeds and out of control vines. (For more detail see yesterday's post, Steve and Shepherd [...]
Steve And Shepherd John
Good morning... The chaplain team writes a devotional message for The Lovett School community each week. This past Monday, my husband Steve wrote a fun piece about the wisdom gleaned from a shepherd named John. ****** Chaplain's Message for May 1st, 2023 by Rev. Steve Allen Acts 2:42-47 • Psalm 23 • 1 Peter 2:19-25 • John 10:1-10 I heard there are companies that bring sheep to your home to eliminate ivy and [...]
Amid The Madness Of A Manhunt
Good morning... Our Julie's Dream prayer team met by Zoom yesterday morning to pray over the lives of the inner city kids we take on trips to explore God's expansive creation. We prayed for the family of kids who recently witnessed their mother murdered by her boyfriend. We prayed for the talented trip leader from a neighboring non-profit who made some very poor choices in his personal life which landed him in jail. [...]
Under All Our Layers
Good morning... After we shared deeply about the pain she was enduring, one friend prayed for another friend over the phone. Capturing the compassion in my journal, I jotted down many of her vulnerable words. Now in the middle of the night I revisit my notes, piecing together this heartfelt prayer. Dear gracious God, Raw and in process, we seek space for the deep down things. The feelings. The questions. The needs under [...]
On Being Broken Hearted
Good morning... “My custom has always been to ponder grief; that is, to follow it through ventricle and aorta to find out its lurking places," writes Marilynne Robinson in the novel Gilead. "That old weight in the chest, telling me there is something I must dwell on, because I know more than I know and must learn it from myself. … I have never found another way to be as honest with myself [...]
How To Process Our Pain
Good morning... I spent the weekend processing our class trip to Montgomery, Alabama to visit the Legacy Museum and the National Memorial for Peace and Justice, beautiful facilities offering experiential opportunities to teach the story of slavery, lynching, racial injustice in our country. I thought, "These memorials remind me of Yad Vashem, The World Holocaust Remembrance Center." We visited the sobering site in Israel this spring. It is so hard to fathom real [...]
My Pile Of Dirty Laundry
Good morning... After experiencing the Legacy Museum and The National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, I am haunted by the inhumanity, the ugly pain inflicted on millions and millions of black skinned people over the centuries, and the way my privileged, comfortable life has really, really bloody roots. I feel compelled to deal with my own pile of dirty laundry. How am I complicate? How do I still contribute to [...]
Our Pile Of Problems
Good morning... We cannot solve the world's pile of problems, but we can discern the next loving thing that is ours to do. Yesterday, "mine to do" was to pass out some of the little pots of pansies I had created in the middle of the night when our internet was out and I was unable to blog. With one pot of pansies I hand wrote a note. "I am praying for a [...]
We All Fall And Bleed
Good morning... With our internet still out, I come to Starbucks to get service for the third day in a row. I pull out the brochure from our trip to Montgomery, Alabama and snap the photo above. I am struck by the fact that among all the informative words and haunting images, I am holding the pamphlet with a loose bandaid on my left thumb. It harkens me back to a lasting line [...]
Pass Out The Pansies
Good morning... Four thousand neighbors and me, we still have no internet. So, once again, no blogging in the middle of the night. Still stirred awake in the wee hours, I was drawn to another form of creativity. Accessing the healing power of pansies! Yesterday, I had cut some pansies from our neighborhood's dying patch before they are ripped up and replaced. We did the same thing last Wednesday with the PAWkids kids. [...]