Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet.  Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. What does the letter C bring to my mind and heart?  Creator God and Chocolate One of my best friends – a retired Catholic priest – begins his prayers when we are together with these words, “Creator God…”I love it how he starts all his times with God remembering and honoring God as Creator.  The attributes of God as Creator humble me, yet draw me closer to this God who can do absolutely anything and everything including loving us simple and frail human beings.God’s hands shaped the universe out of chaos. In a blink of His eye, God established the hundreds of billions of galaxies, black holes from which nothing can escape, even light … [Read more...]

Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on the letter of the week. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet.  Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. Image via WikipediaWhat does the letter B bring to my mind and heart?  Since I have been trying to find the gifts during cold and snowy Ohio winters, I could say that the letter “B” stands for bleak, boring, blowing, and brisk see your breath bundling cold.  HA!But the letter “B” reminded me instantly on a blog post I wrote a year ago about bird nests and their lessons for me. So I am reprinted it here today in honor of the letter “B.”Image via Wikipedia   Winter enfolds me with a sense of emptiness and loss of hope. My mood reflects the dreary gray winter sky that blanket northwest Ohio.    But the last few years I see winter with … [Read more...]

Patty Wysong has created a fun meme where once a week bloggers posted on a letter of the alphabet. Check out the details here. It is called A2Z: Take 2. A2Z as she challenges bloggers to write a post each week going through the alphabet.  Take 2 since this is the second time she has used this meme. Anyone can join in and you don’t have to always participate. The Letter AWhat does the letter A bring to my mind and heart?  I knew the answer immediately: my great Aunt Anna.What a legacy she left. My middle name  - Anne – was given to me in her honor. But she is also deep within my genes and DNA as she was a writer and studied spiritual giants in her lifetime.Aunt Anna was born on January 24 1883 and was the sister of my grandfather. She died when I was just a teenager at the age of 84 so my memory of her is a gray-headed old woman who liked to tend her garden. Little did I know then that as an adult, I would identify so much with her.Oh, how I would love to spend time with her now and … [Read more...]

This is the second in my series about Contemplating Winter – trying to find spiritual lessons in my least favorite season. You see, I am NOT a winter person. I dislike winter so much I rank it about ten on the list of four seasons. But I do know God sends us lessons in all experiences if only we are open to hold them for a while in our hands and hearts. What is winter showing me this year? “Contemplating Winter” will be the focus on my blog posts on Tuesday in January. Come and ponder this season with me."Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."  ~Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entryCOLDI pondered the word COLDthis morning. No wonder I don’t like it. Think of all the negative associations with this word:Cold soresCold feetCold-bloodedCold warCold caseCold shoulderCold sweatCold turkeyBrr – being cold is laden with emotional … [Read more...]

I am NOT a winter person. I dislike winter so much I rank it about ten on the list of four seasons. But I do know God sends us lessons in all experiences if only we are open to hold them for a while in our hands and hearts. What is winter showing me this year? “Contemplating Winter” will be the focus on my blog posts on Tuesday in January. Come and ponder this season with me."Hear! hear!" screamed the jay from a neighboring tree, where I had heard a tittering for some time, "winter has a concentrated and nutty kernel, if you know where to look for it."  ~Henry David Thoreau, 28 November 1858 journal entryThe scene outside my window today fits this theme of Contemplating Winter perfectly. I think God in His good humor knew to send wintry weather for me to set the mood as I write. In Ohio today it is 27 degrees, windy, cloudy, and snowy. I am a warm weather person who loves the sunshine and higher temperatures. Winter shrouds my spirit and slows down my soul. Yet I felt God’s invitation … [Read more...]

Image by 'smil via FlickrThe start of a new year symbolizes new beginnings. Opening up a new calendar fills me with can-do energy and is like a fresh warm breeze in my soul.I cling to God’s promise in Isaiah: Behold I will do a new thing  - Isaiah 43:19 Here are some of my random ponderings this week:·      I plan to reread my journal, reflecting on the past year’s life lessons and praying for guidance where to spend my time and energy in the coming year.·      I read on many blogs, that others chose one word or several words as themes.  Though this hasn’t worked as effectively for me in the past I want to try it again.  I sense the word: BECOMING and LIVING GRATEFULLY for 2012’s focus.  I am also slowly hearing the word: WAIT.  Perhaps because I have a tendency to rush into decisions, God is reminding me to listen first.·      Certain questions arise in my heart: What should I say yes to in 2012 and what should I say no to? What should I eliminate in order to grow? To become? Are my … [Read more...]

Image by xsphotos via FlickrI added a pencil sharpener to my desk last week. As a writer, I spend lots of time on my computer keyboard. As a journalist, I grab extra pens to take notes in an interview.But more and more at my desk, I use a sharpened pencil - a plain old, everyday, yellow, number two pencil. I agree with William Faulkner when he wrote, “I’ve got to feel the pencil and see the words at the end of the pencil.”  Looking at the pencil in my hand reminded me of the following story:A boy was watching his grandmother write a letter. At one point he asked,
”Are you writing a story about what we’ve done? Is it a story about me?”His grandmother stopped writing her letter and said to her grandson, “I am writing about you, actually, but more important than the words is the pencil I’m using. I hope you will be like this pencil when you grow up.”Intrigued, the boy looked at the pencil. It didn’t seem very special.
”But it’s just like any other pencil I’ve ever seen!”“That depends on … [Read more...]

Image by eigirdaz via Flickr“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” ― Rainer Maria Rilke     My devotion last week referred to this quote saying often our deepest fears are like dragons guarding our deepest treasures. So if we are brave enough to comfort our uncertainties, the dragons in our lives, we can discover what is most precious within us.    So often when we face our fears, they evaporate or become helpless as Rilke says. That core deep inside us, though something we all want to discover, to know, and to understand, is also a place a tender vulnerability. After all, it is our essence, our soul stamped with God’s fingerprint.    We don’t normally face our fears willingly, do we? God is the One who woos us into the desert valley. I know that the true growth doesn’t occur on the mountaintops, … [Read more...]