Good morning... Our family is short. You saw photos of my parents in a few recent posts, my parents who stand 5-feet-1 and 5-feet-3. My older sister and I stand up really tall to reach 5-feet ourselves, and our younger brother is the giant of our family at a whopping 5-feet-9. My husband is also 5-feet-9, and our [...]
Good morning... Yesterday's post by the Henri Nouwen Society explains the process of shedding our old self to gradually mature into our God-designed true self, "growing up in all things" into Christ, our Head (Ephesians 4:15). I wonder if somehow this is what happened to me when I moved from the close-knit cocoon of loving and being loved [...]
Good morning... I recently happened upon a story about our family stepping out of our old life before stepping into our new one in autumn of 2003. ****** Conform Or Transform? by Sue Allen, on page 39 in Touching Truth: Grasping The Grace of God As our family moved from a sleepy lifestyle in rural Pennsylvania to the [...]
Good morning... From a retrospective distance, moving from life phase to life phase may seem seamless, but in the middle of leaving behind "what was" while waiting precariously for "what will be," we often struggle to be satisfied with the scraps of "what is." As I have shared with you before, I hit my deepest time of depression [...]
Good morning... "Jung divided life into two phases. The first phase, or 'morning,' is reserved for relating and orienting to the outer world by developing the ego," we read aloud as a class yesterday from page 9 of Sue Monk Kidd's When The Heart Waits. "The second half, or 'afternoon,' is for adapting to the inner world by [...]
Good morning... Remember? I shared with you that my parents, ages 80 and 81, moved away from our hometown of Berea, Ohio after living there for over fifty years. Following the lead of several good friends, on November 1st, 2018 they moved into a two-bedroom, two-bath villa in a continuing care, retirement community twenty minutes away. In early [...]
Good morning... This Sabbath morning, I come upon a quiet quote, like picking up one weathered shell from the winter beach. “Usually, when the distractions of daily life deplete our energy, the first thing we eliminate is the thing we need the most: quiet, reflective time. Time to dream, time to contemplate what's working and what's not, so [...]
Good morning... This midwinter week, what am I learning about the seamless dance between living fully and dying well? Monday: The wise words of Martin Luther King, Jr. leave a life-giving legacy, inviting us all up the mountain to God's higher way. Tuesday: Blending the wisdom of my Florida friend Betty Skinner, as she nears her 93rd birthday, with [...]
Good morning... "I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]" says Jesus in John 10:10b (AMP). How do we do this in our everyday lives? We surround ourselves with joy-producers. I love this picture because it embodies my personal joy-producers. I am ...Sue... [...]
Good morning... A few of you wrote me touched by yesterday's morning message (use "Previous" link above to revisit post). I felt compelled to issue each a challenge: "Text me by evening and tell me some of the ways God amazes you today. I will do the same." So by the end of yesterday, these moments of amazement [...]
