Good morning... Yesterday I took magazines, glue sticks, scissors, and evocative pre-cut images to our PAWkids therapeutic community group. I also shared my growing deck of Soul Collage cards, providing an example of our creative activity for the day. When we checked in with one another, as we do each week, one woman quickly picked up the card above, a card I had created the night before as I was prayerfully processing news [...]

Good morning... "Sue, Chris is in the arms of Jesus." My dear, longtime 'soul friend' texted on Saturday evening. "He passed away this morning. All is well. Love you." Wow, what a touching message. Having walked and talked through this journey together for years and years and years, Chris went to heaven at age 67. Early onset Alzheimers could not diminish the immense love surrounding Chris Kimbel each day of his married life. [...]

Good morning... In our PAWkids therapeutic community group last Tuesday, we used "Blob Ridge" to describe our feelings. We colored in the blobs with which we resonated most. I felt like the orange person on the far right, being hugged and supported throughout my best birthday week ever. At the same time I felt like the yellow person sitting beside the bridge on the left, witnessing and processing the diversity of our shared [...]

Good morning... I hold in my hand one of the Soul Collage cards created on my 60th birthday. I feel held, kept, carried. Eyes closed, focused inward, taking quiet time, I glide through these middle-of-the-night moments resting with God. I turned and witnessed something else under the sun: the race does not always go to the swift, the battle is not always won by the strong, bread does not always fill the table of the wise, wealth does not always accrue to the skillful, and [...]

Good morning... For my 60th birthday, my friend Ginna hosted a Soul Collage party for a small handful of individuals from various walks of my life. I knew each of the ten women very well, each represented special facets of my evolving story, but most did not know one another. Open to a creative adventure, we came together to celebrate life for ninety meaningful minutes during yesterday's gorgeous spring afternoon. Ginna began our [...]

Good morning... As I wake in these wee hours on my 60th birthday, my thoughts turn to a story I met this week. I am inspired to savor some cinnamon toast. ****** "Great Things Have Happened" by Alden Nowlan We were talking about the great things that have happened in our lifetimes; and I said, "Oh, I suppose the moon landing was the greatest thing that has happened in my time." But, of [...]

Good morning... The word mundane means banal. Lowly. Normal. Routine. Day-to-day. Humdrum. Lacking a sense of awe in the absolutely ordinary, we can miss the magic of the present moment. Adversity often amplifies the beauty of the commonplace. As 37-year-old Elizabeth endures harsh treatment for her advanced colon cancer, she writes about the divine dynamic of savoring the simple things tucking into every day. ****** Excerpt from Elizabeth's PostHope blog The Beauty In [...]

Good morning... A year ago this month, when we were with our 2022 group in Israel, I received a text from my dad reporting that my 83-year-old mom had fallen in exercise class and had broken her femur. That began a fiasco of a year. Surgery. Recovery at the care center in their senior living community. Rehab and physical therapy. Wheelchair to walker. A stroke. Sepsis shutting down her organs. Unresponsive in the [...]

Good morning... Flying back from a whirlwind weekend visiting family and friends in my hometown of Ohio, I nestled into the window seat. Scanning fun photos on my phone, a clear insight dawned: "People. It's the people that make life feel good." "And not just any people," my thoughts continue now, following a full night of sleep, "but it's the people who share the stories which have shaped me into me." [...]

Good morning... This weekend I have returned to Ohio to visit with my parents and to meet up with my best high school friends to celebrate our 60th birthday season. We have remained connected through a text string for years and years and years, but it has been a very long time since all six of us have been together. Our tenth high school reunion in 1991 may have been our most recent [...]

Good morning... Since our family found its spiritual home at Northside Church in 2003, we have been praying for Elizabeth Potts. Sunday after Sunday, year after year, her name has been read aloud from the collective prayer list, and as a church family we have diligently prayed for God's healing touch to support the life of Elizabeth. Being diagnosed with a malignant, inoperable brain tumor as she was turning four years old, Elizabeth [...]

Good morning... Our written word community has come alongside 37-year-old Elizabeth as she journeys through treatment for advanced colon cancer. Many of us follow her PostHope blog. We admire the beauty of the raw, real words she regularly shares. We lift prayers for her and for her young family. With permission, I share with you from the soulful web of support which God continues to weave around Elizabeth. ****** Excerpt from Elizabeth's PostHope [...]