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. [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Good morning... "It saddens me to see such division in our church, but God will help us figure that out," she wrote after yesterday's post. "I came across this poem and I think it speaks for people as well as for the church. My depression is still waxing and waining like the moon, so I know it speaks [...]
Good morning... I woke yesterday to an email from our pastor announcing changes in the United Methodist Church. "In what was a solemn day, members of the 2023 North Georgia Annual Conference ratified the disaffiliation agreements of 261 churches at a Special Called Session," begins the article recounting Saturday's important gathering. Later we learn "...approximately 440 North Georgia [...]
Good morning... As I visited my new nephew in Ohio last week, I went to the bathroom before leaving for the airport to fly back to Atlanta. As I stepped back into their kitchen, I saw the sight above - the hand painted plaque I had commissioned for my sister's son and his wife when they married in [...]
Good morning... As I washed my face, finally home after speaking at last night's Holiday Gathering, I looked at my hand and saw my talk in a nutshell. "Shoulds. Read story. 2 shells. Another story. Picture - perfect looking, broken. Dark night. 3 things. Journaling. Northside groups. PAWkids." Then on the tips of my fingers. "Elf. Water. Quote. [...]
Good morning... "Thought of you and the Holiday Gathering you are doing," she texted along with the clever image above. She made me smile. She made me chuckle. She made me feel loved and supported. "A disco ball is hundreds of pieces of broken glass put together to make a magical ball of light," reads the Judi Holler [...]
Good morning... This has never happened to me before. I spent diligent time discerning our morning message in the middle of yesterday's dark night, then I unconsciously drifted to sleep on the couch where I write. I woke, climbed in bed, woke again, then headed into a very full day. "We didn't get your blog today," my dad [...]
