Lead with courage, Compassion, and Integrity
Frequent, Direct, One-on-One: Communicating in Times of Uncertainty
Perhaps now (July, 2020) more than ever, we live in a time of volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA). It's not just our organizations that are trying to navigate the turbulent waters of VUCA. It's our families, schools, social services, and...
Rep. John Lewis
Yesterday the world lost a great leader: Representative John Lewis. The loss sits heavy on my heart. In these times of division, cruelty, and hatred, we need the leadership of John Lewis. We need the moral courage of John Lewis. "When you see something that is not...
“How’s your spirit today?”
This is the question Jim Wallis asks Whitney Parnell at the beginning of their conversation on the podcast, The Soul of The Nation. What a powerful and fitting question. Certainly for these times. Maybe for all times. It's a better question than "How are you?" We've...
This Morning
At 6am I rolled out of bed and pulled on jeans and a tee shirt to tend to the garden. My heart was heavy. It has been for many days. I'm not alone. Sorrow rages against the early summer skies these days. But this morning, clouds drifted across the morning sky, and...
Notice
The maple trees that stand guard outside my house have replaced their lemon-colored hairnets of buds with a spray of green. Soon they will don their emerald crowns. A downy woodpecker, grackle, and chickadee take turns feeding at the suet cake. Yesterday I...
Content in a Tiny House
Tiny house living made sense when I anticipated living in 240 square feet for two or three months of the year. Now that I'm living full-time in my tiny house on wheels (THOW), the blush of charm has faded to frustration. Sure, I don't have a mortgage. My utilities...
Keep Breathing
"Keep breathing." That's what my dad said when life overwhelmed. He offered other sage advice. But "keep breathing," rings in my memory as a gentle reminder. Breath is life. Paying attention to breath, slowing down the pace of breathing calms the mind and the spirit....
Course Correction
[A] plane is off course at least 90 percent of the time. Weather conditions, turbulence, and other factors cause it to get off track. However, feedback is given to the pilot constantly, who then makes course corrections and keeps coming back to the exact flight plan,...
Advice to self: Lighten up
In spite of all the wise and witty words about making mistakes, no one I know schedules mistake-making into the daily calendar. Most of us try to succeed in our endeavors. Well, I do. Whether it's making a proposal to a potential client or applying polyurethane to a...
Just being honest
This website is supposed to be a place of encouragement, a moment of grace, and place of peace. To be honest, I haven't felt peaceful lately. My basket of grace is empty. I'm stuck in muddy doubt and fear. I'm renting space in my head to Scarcity Mentality. It may all...
Bucket Bath
Since the Writing for Your Life gathering in March, I've been thinking about Barbara Brown Taylor's encouragement to imagine tactile, smell, and taste images for religious vocabulary. Maybe because I need it daily, grace is the vocabulary word that swirls around in my...
Another Image of Grace
When I was a child, in the 1950's and early 60's, my family lived in the northwestern corner of Pennsylvania, just south of Lake Erie, in the snow belt. Winters were snowy and bitter cold. My memories are of ice skating, sledding, and digging tunnels in the snow. Snow...
What does Grace (“free, unmerited favor,” not the person!) Smell Like?
Last week I was fortunate to participate in a conference organized by Writing for Your Life. Barbara Brown Taylor talked to us during two keynote sessions. If you know her work, you can appreciate what a gift that was. If you don't know Barbara Brown Taylor's work,...
Ash Wednesday
Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday. I'll join with other parishioners for Holy Eucharist with the Imposition of Ashes. The priest will smudge the sign of the cross on each of our foreheads and remind us, "You are dust, and to dust you shall return." We will pray the...
A Whisper of Grace for Today: Thank you Heather Shaw and Frederick Buechner
The goal of this website, at least right now, is to offer "a whisper of grace and a touch of mercy to help you through this day." To be honest, I needed a "whisper of grace" this morning. All day yesterday I wrestled with three pieces of writing. From the moment I...
Grace and Gratitude
It had been a day stuffed with meetings in airless rooms. Hot, tired, and exhausted, I set my heart on a quiet evening at home. I stuffed the remainders of the day into my backpack, slogged to the main road, and hailed a taxi. An eager motorcycle driver swerved to a...
A Web of Gratitude
Just finished facilitating a 45-minute session with eight local business people on networking (the people kind, not the technology or software kind). For most of the session we talked about the usuals. We compared notes on why it's important to nurture your network....
Help
During a conversation with my friend Angie Ward, I made a passing comment that the American church could learn some things from the Congolese church. "Would you come on my podcast and talk about that?" she asked. "Sure," I responded. I'm not a theologian, a...
Compassion
“The hardest thing in the world is to have compassion for those who have no compassion.” Tony McAleer, founder of Life After Hate. Interviewed Sojourners, August 2017.
From Strength to Strength
“Keep your eyes open for ways you can know support,” my counselor said. He was bringing our session to a close. I had unloaded a trunk full of sadness, disappointment, and anger that had collected over the previous three weeks. The mother and father of a UCBC student...
Welcome Mats
Last fall I searched websites for a welcome mat. I was looking for something fun for my daughter and son-in-law, foresters who live in Montana where miles separate neighbors. My son-in-law is an avid hunter and fisherman who prefers a day in the wilderness with a...
Starting Again
It’s January. The start of another calendar year. And today is the start of a new, revised, rejuvenated blog.