Sometimes, I feel like I’m in perpetual “Groundhog Day” (like the 1993 movie Bill Murray starred in). Each set of twenty-four hours seems like a repetition of the one before—learned patterns, a sense of life impotence, the same mundanity or routine. Yet, lying in bed this morning at 6:00, awoken by a jarring alarm, I […]
Time is an incredibly fleeting reality, yet my brain is often on overdrive despite my consciousness of the unhealthiness of that! Thinking about how months, years, and decades fly by, I’ve been contemplating an awareness held for a long time: abundance. All we need to do is turn on the news to see the scarcity that is […]
An explosion in a chocolate factory less than an hour from me killed seven people yesterday.This morning, three Nashville children were killed at Covenant School, part of a Presbyterian Church.Above Rolling Fork, Mississippi, satellite images show the abject devastation while news reports continue to tally death tolls. These are just three of this morning’s heartbreaks. Raucous […]
Apprehension. Unease. Doubt. Anxieties many people I know experience, just as I do. How do we handle angst or process the restless feeling that, for many, often permeates day-to-day life? Years ago, my friend Jill said to me, “We want to know what’s going on in our world, but what we read or hear frightens us, we […]
Yesterday, I smashed the front of my car. I was on an unfamiliar road, driving to meet a friend for an 8:00 breakfast before my 10:00 client appointment. There was a sharp curve that I didn’t anticipate, and the front of my car went up on the curb. I am an incredibly cautious driver. I […]
Awareness and acknowledgment may seem inconsequential, but, in reality, they make a significant difference in our planet’s energy. I’ve always been mindful of sharing what I think if it’s something positive and will walk up to perfect strangers and compliment their hair or outfit or the cuteness of their child and never once has it not elicited a […]
Yesterday, the faith community I’m part of dedicated a new space. It’s not a traditional church; it’s not even a building we own because our philosophy has always been to use our resources to create a safe place where love is paramount, a sense of community is critical, and we can be genuine with each […]
Expectations speak to desired outcomes like: trust, belief, safety, possibility, anticipation or, looking forward. They’re sometimes an assumption, but often they’re deeply rooted longings bolstered by the faith that something petitioned for or desperately needed will come to fruition. What are your great expectations? I asked myself, “what do I desire to create or achieve with this year that’s […]
Nocturnal Panic Attacks False Awakenings Lucid Dreaming They’re all genuine and can make you believe you’re physically dying. The illusion of waking up even though you’re still asleep involves experiences that seem completely real. Eventually, you often become cognizant that you’re actually in a dream, one foot in the tangible world, the other in an altered state. […]
Part 1: Sleepless in Emmaus It was 4:40 on this last day of 2022 when I woke up. Thankfully, the early rising wasn’t because of a full-blown nightmare like I had the previous night, where it physically felt like I had a heart attack. Frantic and powerless, I was pushing back against a reality I […]
On this day after Christmas, the house is silent—too quiet, honestly—with only Vero (our empathic little rescue dog) and me sitting in the library as the heater whirs on, staving off the winter that won’t officially end until March 20th. The past two days were a whirlwind—leaving our home for church on Christmas Eve with […]
Yesterday, I ran a few errands, then did some final decorating— stringing the Christmas cards we received from friends so I could hang them across the doors. After all, if we’re blessed to receive these greetings of love, shouldn’t we somehow acknowledge them? Too often, I forget what really matters, caught up in the secular […]
Stories about Christmas abound. Some of them are filled with the sadness of missing a loved one. Others recall times, when we were far from home or Christmas didn’t play out the way we painted it in our idyllic imaginations. Mostly, however, the stories we share are the happiest ones. This is one of those […]
This morning, I woke up again with a mental Christmas “still to-do list” that rivals most of those I make. I backed out of the garage and headed down the cul-de-sac, turning left onto St. Peter’s Road. As I round the corner, I again see “The Bicycle Tree.” This isn’t a tiny faux tree adorned […]
A few weeks ago, I unpacked Christmas. In the boxes were fragile glass ornaments, precious works of art with”best Nana ever,” and the little drummer boys my daughters, Sara and Erin, made with their grandmother more than thirty years ago. There were gifts from friends and heartfelt pieces my Mom gave me. Some are decades […]
As I sit facing the east, in my quiet time with God and my tea, I see the maple tree as the sun rises each morning. She was here before me—graceful and sturdy, a beautiful paradox. My grandchildren used to climb her branches, and each autumn, they would jump in piles of her vibrant, fallen […]
The table of Thanksgiving has been set. For many, it will be filled with laughter and reminiscing. For many, it will be a table for just one. A barely perceptible voice whispers, “you are loved.” “Thank You, God” will be followed by a list of extraordinary blessings. “Thank You, God” will be followed by “for […]
Life’s fragility—much too fleeting or painstakingly stagnant, joyfully overflowing or devastatingly lonely—plays out in this space between human life and death. Sometimes, lines have been rehearsed for decades; often, we’re caught off guard, blindsided by the swiftness of change that was never expected or invited. We can be like shooting stars—tiny specs of dust glowing […]
The human brain is only three pounds but has a trillion cells and a rapidly firing hundred billion neurons. Our cerebrum’s options are practically limitless, yet we humans often get caught up in minuscule life routines, forgetting to see other pictures of life different from our norms or what’s right in front of us. Reflecting on life this […]
The pear tree I planted almost two decades ago is heavy with fruit. Most years, I don’t thin it out as I should, and when I walked outside this morning, I noticed the tree branches weighted down, scattered cores from the deer that feast each night at her base. A peach tree planted the same […]
There was a man who, long ago, created a life filled with unbridled joy and an awareness of the universe’s amazingness. Nevertheless, as in many stories, a shift took place; it started slowly but kept building into a flame consuming the truth until he didn’t recognize his value, his verve, or the pain that was […]
Part I I woke up this beautiful summer morning from a bad dream; thankfully, not a full-blown nightmare which I have too often. These sleep-state images were about being in a terrible accident and waking up paralyzed, my ability forever at the mercy of a wheelchair; my life abruptly halted. In the dream, I was […]
“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” I drive on a two-lane road on an early, but not ordinary, perfect seventy-two-degree morning. No other cars vie for nature’s attention on this still sleepy hour, where I navigate […]
After another night of bad dreams, I woke up tired and disoriented. I called the new day to me, trying to shake off the dark, pulling myself together (literally curling up in a fetal position), then getting myself together emotionally. I’ve never understood the calamity my brain creates as I attempt to sleep when I […]
When my granddaughter, Lauren, was in middle school, she read me a story about a family that lived through a devastating Joplin, Missouri tornado. Their home was completely destroyed, but they survived the deadliest tornado our country had seen in sixty years. I imagine their life has never been the same; the recognition of “what […]
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