Good morning... She walked into our foyer on the first day of class and, after sharing an "I missed you" hug, she pulled from her purse a bulletin from her eighteen year old niece's memorial service. I marveled at pictures of the same smiling face growing up through the years, a down-to-earth face I will not meet until [...]
Good morning... One month ago today, I settled into the passenger’s seat of Cathy Smith’s car. This close friend to many of us invited me to visit with her the cemetery where their precious daughter Abby is laid to rest. At midnight on March 23, 2004, I handed my birthday baton to this new little babe and Abby [...]
Good morning... So deeply loving her book Gift Of The Red Bird, I joined author Paula D'Arcy for a weekend at Ignatius House Retreat Center in August of 2015. Many who had loved boldly and lost abruptly came to be with this vibrant woman, a woman who was not only standing, breathing, and living on after the 1975 death [...]
Good morning... I read aloud to the classes in our living room two poignant pages from Paula D'Arcy's most well-known book, Gift of The Red Bird, two pages that describe one life altering day. Paula and her husband Roy were enjoying a simple life with their first toddling daughter Sarah when we pick up their story. ****** Gift [...]
Good morning... All week our TVs have afforded us front row seats for the forecasted devastation of Hurricane Florence. Experts have mapped out the mayhem, predicting the path of this strong-willed storm. What will we see when we turn on the news today? How many people over the coming hours will privately pray? "Save me, O God, for the waters [...]
Good morning... When we moved into the tiny, Pennsylvania town-of-my-dreams in the third week of June in 2001, our kids were six, four, two, and two weeks old. As God had planned our placement perfectly, my next door neighbor, Betsy, was also nurturing a two year old and a two week old. Betsy and I became fast, deep-seeded [...]
Good morning... Wow. Yesterday I learned a startling truth: the word "biopsy" is not benign. Benign means good and mild, gentle and kind, tender and harmless. I know the word "biopsy" is not benign, because it caused a fearful stir. I quoted Erwin Raphael McManus in my post yesterday, a post entitled 911 Moments Form Our Faith. McManus [...]
Good morning... Yesterday, September 10th, was the first anniversary of a very significant loss. Loved ones leaned in, joined together, and shared love. Today, September 11th, is the seventeenth anniversary of another devastating loss. Our nation leans in, joins together, and resists hate. I am reminded of the life altering effects of 9/11/01 as I read these words written [...]
Good morning... I will facilitate our first class this afternoon, kicking off our Fall 2018 semester. God usually coaxes me to teach a random, deep-seeded read, a book that never hopes to be a New York Times bestseller. For some reason it was extra hard to discern God's pick for this particular season. I was drawn to a handful [...]
Good morning... As you can tell, I think we do well to age gently into the passage of time. When we relax, reflect, and renew our mind, we will find God's deeper meaning connecting our daily dots. Now ask the animals, and let them teach you [that God does not deal with His creatures according to their character]; And ask [...]
