The garden is my happy place… This morning, my garden task was thinning lettuce. If I were to leave all of the lettuce bunched up together, there wouldn't be enough room for each plant to grow. Thinning the lettuce is what allows the plants that remain to thrive…
Read MoreHave you ever made a mess of things? I mean, a really massive mess? I know I have. We all have. Every single one of us. Yet, I imagine it is fair to say that none of us would like to be forever defined by the poorest choices we have made. We are all in need of forgiveness and fresh starts…
Read MoreAnd the silence ... well ... the silence was absolutely, spectacularly stunning! There was no human noise at all except for the crunch of our boots in the snow and the sound of our own breath. We stood still. Reverent. Grateful.
Read More"So, was it productive?" was the well-meaning question I heard often when I returned home from a silent retreat last summer. I didn't quite know how to respond. Was being productive the goal? Or was it something quite different?
Read MoreWhat if we were to follow the filter feeding example of the baleen whales and only swallow what nourishes us?
Read MoreWords matter. The words we use with one another, with ourselves and with God set the stage for how we might have eyes to see God’s presence right in the midst of our extraordinary ordinary lives. Selecting a “sacred word” as a companion for the year to come has become an increasingly popular tradition as we transition from one calendar year to the next…
Read More'Tis the season to be... whale watching!?! I got my Christmas gift early this year when we visited family in California last month and went whale watching together. I had previously been whale watching about a decade ago but, after several hours out on the water, we had not seen anything other than waves. So, as you can imagine, I was eagerly awaiting the possibility of seeing actual whales this time around…
Read MoreI love the gorgeous gingko tree in our yard! Over the past few days, our beloved tree has begun its annual fall transformation from beautiful green-fan leaves into a luminous golden-yellow orb. Soon, the bright yellow leaves will let go of their safe hold in the branches and gently fall to the ground below…
Read MoreDuring a short, silent retreat this summer, I unwrapped an unexpected gift - the gift of sacred sauntering…
Read MoreI was polishing up my "spouting off blog" reflections last Monday afternoon (something about "sacred sauntering," I believe) as I sat by my mother-in-law's bedside while she slept. Up until a few days prior, she had been her usual pleasantly perplexed self. The staff on the memory care unit frequently commented on how much they loved taking care of her because she would ramble, giggle, and smile amiably as she interacted with them.
That Monday night around midnight we got a call from Joan's nurse saying that she seemed to be in some discomfort and that they were going to call hospice to help make her more comfortable…
Read More
