Good morning... Last week in our therapeutic community group, we took a walk down the block to notice the various autumn trees. Black. White. Young. Old. Together as a diverse group we discussed the reading below. Think about it. Really think about it. In your mind's eye, what difficult person might you to turn into a [...]
Good morning... "Loving your offerings!" wrote an old friend after yesterday's post Our Little Oil Lamp. "We are in Jerusalem and heading to the Old Jerusalem shortly. I have seen replicas of these little oil lamps and it makes me smile to read your morning sharing!" Soon after came the voice of another friend over the phone. "The [...]
Good morning... Monday morning's drizzle drenched our outdoor furniture, so our afternoon class was drawn inside. Our intimate circle of women savored a life-giving conversation, reading these words aloud from page 43 of Simple Faith by Margaret Silf. ****** Turning Contemplation into Action I have a little oil lamp that a friend gave me, and it's a constant [...]
Good morning... "The universe is wider than our view of it," reminds Henry David Thoreau. As my friend struggles to come to terms with a difficult diagnosis, she regularly takes time away to release her fear, her worry, her "What if?" Creating quiet spaces of waiting, wishing, wondering, my friend rests in widening pockets of God's enduring joy. [...]
Happy Halloween! "Everyone must decide," said Martin Luther King Jr., "whether to walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." "To be a person of faith is to make a choice to center one's life around the deeper center of gravity we call God, and the greater good of all creation, rather [...]
Good morning... "Not good news," I was saddened by my friend's text. "The cancer is in her spine, hip, lymph nodes, base of her skull. I'm not sure where we go from here. Marleigh's spirits are good. I'm still taking it day by day. I fall apart when I get ahead of myself. I love you and am [...]
Good morning... On Wednesday evening, a group of nearly one hundred of us gathered at PAWkids to celebrate the life of 7-year-old Hailey Harris who died in a house fire along with her grandmother and two aunts. The 5:00 pm balloon launch in Hailey's honor actually happened around 6:00 pm, followed by grilled hot dogs and fixings, sidewalk [...]
Good morning... It was not a normal Wednesday afternoon. We moved our arts and crafts activities into the portable classroom so the PAWkids staff could set up for the special gathering outside. We learned all about last week's Homecoming dance. We helped kids make Halloween bracelets with a pumpkin charm. We allowed each child to create their own [...]
Good morning... After our therapeutic community group yesterday, I spent quality time with Larenzia Lawrence, the daughter of LaTonya Gates, who is the founder and director of PAWkids, a non-profit supporting the neediest families in downtown Atlanta. Larenzia and I are pictured above. Last Wednesday tragedy struck the family of Larenzia's childhood best friend as a fire ripped [...]
Good morning... Most of us have heard that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, but the fight became deeply personal for me when I received a text from a friend on October 12th at 7:34 am. "Thank you for your message this morning, Courage Is Rekindled," she wrote. "God spoke to me through you in a mighty way! [...]
