Scripps Sundays

  It was so good to have you home....  Here are a few of my favorite pictures from our time together.  You are so loved, Anna!!  I loved spending time with you! 

The following Scripps Sunday is from an resource I mentioned to you as we were running from a website called Grateful Living. As I did this earlier this week, I thought back over the year, and the joy was overflowing with so many shared memories with YOU. I am still pinching myself that we ran a freaking marathon together yesterday.  SO. MUCH. JOY.  I think you will love this reflection below... "The first moment of genuine joy is the moment of commitment to the human experience. Joy is what makes us human. When we deny that, when we push joy off to the margins, when we say it’s extraneous, or it’s a luxury, we lose a piece of our humanity." -  Ingrid Fetell Lee Joy is a deep well of feeling that surpasses language. It contains part happiness, part contentment, part elation — with dashes of play, surprise, and even transcendence in the mix. It can be a response to peak experiences, those moments in our lives when we describe ourselves as  overjoyed , and it can be f...

a blessing for the life you have Blessed are you who hold hope with an open hand. You who try not to fix your gaze on time’s far horizon or get drunk on what might yet be. And blessed are you who avoid walking too far down memory lane, getting stuck wondering if that was as good as it gets, if you’ve peaked, or feeling resentful about all that has disappointed before. Blessed are you who know that sometimes you need to stay right here. At least for a minute. Blessed are you who look wide-eyed, maybe timidly, at the present moment, gazing at those things that are gently, actually within the reach of your fingertips. Blessed are you amid the ordinary details that define what life is for you, right now. And as you see them, greet them—each one— as you smile and call them by name. Everyday joys. Small pleasures. Birds chirping. Cat cuddles. A cold glass of water. A little child calling your name. The breeze on your cheeks. The ocean rhythm. The perfect pillow. The kindness of a friend. Lov...

This is STUNNING—listen in…. Matthew 22:34-40 – First Nations Version The Greatest of the Instructions When the Separated Ones (Pharisees) heard how he silenced the Upright Ones (Sadducees), they put their heads together and came up with a plan. One of them who was an expert in tribal law, would put him to the test. The expert came to him. “Wisdom- keeper,” he asked, “which instruction in our tribal law stands first?” Creator Sets Free (Jesus) answered him, “You must love the Great Spirit from deep within, with the strength of your arms, the thoughts of your mind, and the courage of your heart.” This is the first and greatest instruction. “The second is like the first,” he added. “You must love your fellow human beings in the same way you love yourselves.” The Law and the words of the prophets all find their full meaning in these two instructions. Creator Sets Free, fill Anna up in this year ahead that she would be able to love you from deep within, with the strength of...

  for an unfinishable day God, it seems that stopping is impossible. Dishes need to be washed. Kids need to be fed. Aging parents need to be cared for. Deadlines need to be met. Medicines need to be administered. Diapers always need to be changed. (They multiply if I sleep, after all.) Can you ease the burden of perfection? Free me from this fantasy of the better me— my new exercise regime, my sumptuous (healthy!) new recipes, the way the perfect placement of my living room furniture would flatter the afternoon light on my social media feed. God, make me more than perfect. Make me more than a job or role, or what I had planned for my golden years. Make me something less predictable than my to-do lists and daily calendar. In this culture of more, more, more, make me less. Less tidy and afraid, less polished and buttoned up, less prideful and judgmental. Turn down the volume of my expectations, and let me hear the birds sing another lovely truth: I am deeply and wholly loved. I am be...