Good morning... I am deeply grateful pianist Dana Cunningham sent us another one of the poems she read aloud to us at our Awake To Wellness Women’s Retreat. In the nest of right now, create a clutter-free inner space for William’s words to resonate in your soul. ****** You Reading This, Be Ready by William Stafford You Reading This, [...]
Good morning... Extremely grateful, I thanked store owner, Lisa, at The Front Porch of Vining for sharing with us a combination of donated and purchased items from her new fresh market for our recent retreat. Two large flower arrangements with an adorable one thrown in. Local pies and yummy pecans. Gift basket and a "Happy Spring" display. Chocolates and cheese [...]
Good morning... “I must die like a kernel of wheat that falls into the furrows of the earth,” says our friend Jesus in John 12:24, (TLB). “Unless I die, I will be alone, a single seed. But my death will produce many new wheat kernels - a plentiful harvest of new lives.” Seeking to fend off death, we want [...]
Good morning... As I sit on my back porch at this time of the year, I see the color of new growth bursting on bare branches. Now and forever, I will call this light, bright color “Julie Green.” One year ago today, 42-year-old Julie Harlan died, a loving wife and mother, a loyal daughter and sister, a long-time friend [...]
Good morning... “Hello newly beloved friends of the heart,” wrote soulful pianist and poetry-memorizer Dana Cunningham. “I am attaching the poems I either recited or read during our Awake To Wellness Retreat time, now a week in our past memory but still alive with fire and verve. I wish you all a joyous, glorious Easter weekend, which I will [...]
Good morning... I absolutely love that the brightness of tonight's full moon sky coincides with the seal-off mystery of the dank, dark tomb. For Jesus' dead body wrapped in burial attire, for you and for me wrapped in our own dark cocoons, God lights our hope. We each whisper in awed wonder: "...even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To [...]
Good morning... To commemorate Good Friday, we consider deeply the death of Christ captured in Mark 15:33-39 (NIV). At noon, darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon. And at three in the afternoon Jesus cried out in a loud voice, “Eloi, Eloi, lema sabachthani?”(which means “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”). When [...]
Good morning... The Thursday before Easter is called Maundy Thursday. Christ's final "mandate" is commemorated today, with "maundy" being a shortened form of the Latin word "mandatum," which means "command." What command or mandate is so important to Jesus that it is given its own special day in the church year? At Thursday's Last Supper with his disciples, Jesus says: "A new [...]
Good morning... Tee Davis, the wise mother of Julie Harlan who died at age 42 from stomach cancer one year ago this week, texted me yesterday after our blog post, Tilting Our True Self. “Hi Sue. I wrote down the last sentence of your message today in my Jesus Calling book. It reminds me of my Julie. Thank you. [...]
Good morning... The night we first met, I sat next to her at dinner. Fragile feeling. Truth-tellers. Something we said sparked her soul to recite for me a poem: "Even if I don't see it again - nor ever feel it," words from her heart came soft and sure. "I know it is - and that if once it hailed [...]
