Everything Is Changing
Good morning... Walking the familiar sidewalk into our backyard, I noticed a yellow blossom at rest on a bed of dying brown. I lifted my eyes to see extravagant buds all over the sprawling vine. This was the day I noticed anew, "Everything is changing." What "used to be" is dying, decaying, dissipating, making room for God's new growth. Transformation happens quietly. Will we look and [...]
Life’s Outline Emerges
Good morning... Prayer is what happens when we listen, and wait, beneath words, for the outline of heaven and earth to emerge. —Wayne Muller, “Nourished by Prayer” Blessed the man, blessed the woman, who listens to me, awake and ready for me each morning, alert and responsive as I start my day’s work. When you find me, you find life, real life (Proverbs 8:34-35a, MSG). ...Sue... Note To Sue [...]
Just Let The Spirit Hover
Good morning... As I received this image from a dear friend, I was reminded of a quote we read aloud in class this week. ****** Excerpt from page 43 of The Other Side of Chaos by Margaret Silf Transitions are messy. Transitions are chaotic. Transitions are where our hard-won order breaks down into disorder. I remember well the morning when, after listening to all my outpourings regarding the chaos running riot in my [...]
Remnants Of A Beloved Life
Good morning... "Sue," she emailed after yesterday's post, When Our Old Life Ends. "I awake these days into your sacred hours...4AM...sometimes with clear knowledge of what I must do this day...this morning with a practical breakthrough of thought...and also deep journaling about my gratitude for the abundant surround sound love and support I am being blessed with...and some gradual acknowledgement of this step in a long goodbye. Our old life ending. (She has [...]
When Our Old Life Ends
Good morning... There are times when the world we knew and loved comes to an end. Life as it used to be is over. Cherished comfort is lost. The unknown unnerves us. Even Jesus himself knows how it feels. About three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” (which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”) (Matthew 27:46, NIV). Inside the dark cocoon, [...]
Audrey Tells Her Cancer Story
Good morning... As I woke in the middle of the night, I opened an amazing gift which has been many years in the making. I watched the touching talk seventeen-year-old Audrey DeShelter shared with a large audience at a recent fundraiser for the fight against childhood cancer. Audrey has been the focus of a handful of our blog posts over the years, most notably One Dynamic Daughter from November 9th, 2019, and last [...]
Fall In Love. Stay In Love.
Happy Valentine's Day... "I have loved you just as My Father has loved Me," whispers Jesus in John 15:9 (NLV). "Stay in My love." Find God everywhere. Fall in love. Stay in love. God's absolute love changes everything, finally. ...Sue... P.S. Thanks to all who purchased items for the Valentine's Day party at PAWkids. The personalized gift baskets, the festive balloons, the yummy food and cupcakes, everything tangibly expressed the intimate love of [...]
I Was Forced To Unplug
Good morning... Traveling with my husband Steve to a destination wedding he was officiating, I had no idea I would be completely unplugged. In our quaint, quiet cottage, we had no wi-fi, no internet, no cell service, no television. That meant no blog posts created for our written word community on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. I was forced to go unexpectedly silent. Unplugging from normal connections, I sensed myself plugging in differently. Prayerfully. [...]
The Revolution Of Tenderness
Good morning... "The Gospel tells us constantly to run the risk of a face-to-face encounter with others, with their physical presence which challenges us, with their pain and their pleas, with their joy which infects us in our close and continuous interaction," says Pope Francis. "True faith in the incarnate Son of God is inseparable from self-giving, from membership in the community, from service, from reconciliation with others. The Son of God, by [...]
Being Freed From Anxiety
Good morning... In yesterday's post, I revealed a strange truth: "I Feel Like Gumby." Stirred awake by the Spirit in the early morning hours, I stretch wide in prayer to hold the deep needs of many. Interestingly, my elementary drawing of this flexible green Gumby now morphs into a new form of creative expression with God. Through colorful, stick figure drawings, I depict on my wide wingspan the concerns weighing heaviest on my [...]
I Feel Like Gumby
Good morning... The brutal ugliness of the raging war. The growing death toll after a devastating earthquake. One young mom's grueling journey with advanced colon cancer. Dear friends offering loving care to their spouses with Alzheimers. Laying to rest a beloved mother, grandmother, friend to many. Waiting with a friend for her daughter's scan results. All the chaotic transitions unpacked in our class discussions. My parents' close, lifetime friend reunited with his wife [...]
I Don’t Know, But I Trust
Good morning... "Transitions are gaps," writes Margaret Silf on page 20 of The Other Side of Chaos. "They mark the gap between the no longer and the not yet. They are the space where we are neither in one place nor another, the hiatus between everything we knew and all that lies ahead in the unknowable future. They mark the place where a certain order breaks down and chaos arises." In class we [...]