Good morning... I met a powerful poem, a poem I have shared repeatedly this week. In person and over the phone. With our small groups and with a few soul friends. Reading slowly, reading twice, we have noticed together the words which touch us most deeply. Like Moses leading beloved followers through the wilderness, today might this poem [...]
Good morning... "A soul friend is a person you trust enough to share some of the deepest matters of your heart, someone who will listen to what you share without any kind of judgement, without trying to "fix" anything, and without flattering or criticizing you," writes Margaret Silf on page 47 of Simple Faith. "He or she will, [...]
Good morning... Meeting for the first time in Lent, our therapeutic community group began with our normal feelings check-in with creative blob-figures. I chose to share about our son's engagement, how I feel like the green figure below, diving into totally new territory, leaning into the friends (in yellow) who are skilled at swimming the waters of expanding [...]
Good morning... The sentence that flavored my first week of Lent came from a friend who said, "For Lent, I am giving up trying." Trying to fix. Trying to win. Trying to force. Trying to define. Trying to direct. Trying to appease. Trying to control. Trying to predict. Trying to impress. Trying to persuade. Trying to understand. Trying [...]
Good morning... "WOW, congrats!!!" she reached out after yesterday's blog post about our oldest son's engagement. Her email continued: "Driving into the factory this morning, I listened to Family Life Today and learned of a “new to me” book from 2015 - Seated with Christ: Living Freely in a Culture of Comparison by Heather Holleman. I really needed [...]
Good morning... I wake to remnants of our oldest son's engagement party. A homemade congratulations banner. A line-up of photos from their eight months of dating. A frig full of leftover food and beverages. Remnants of a wonderful whirlwind weekend. Just now, as I sat down to blog about our one-of-a-kind Saturday, at 1:40 am came a rustle [...]
Good morning... "I loved your Stop Trying post," a longtime friend wrote yesterday. "The image of hands caught my attention." "On our recent trip to New York, we went to the Guggenheim," she explained. "There was an exhibit for Black History Month that was quite moving, about slave ships coming to America. I keep returning to the close [...]
Good morning... After a deep, heartfelt conversation, she said, "For Lent, I am giving up trying." I thought to myself, "That's a weird thing to say." At first. Then the thought strangely returned to me. Then again. And quietly, just now, again. As I sit still with her phrase in the middle of the night, I begin to [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, after my second sleep, I woke to a thought provoking poem sent by a friend. Slowly, I read it aloud to myself, thinking, "What a gorgeous way to begin Ash Wednesday." As we journey into the invitation of this Lenten season, might we each take a moment to savor these words which are blown like [...]
Good morning... In our backyard, remnants of old blend with green growth of new. Yesterday, I snapped a few photos capturing signs of death and rebirth coexisting in the garden. Now up in the middle of the night, I feel drawn to don my slippers, to grab a pair of scissors, and to snip off, one by one, [...]
