Thanks for Dinner, Dad
“Rats,” said one. This was greeted by a delighted chortle from the backseat, where sat the other, smiling at beating her sister this time to thank Dad for the dinner we had just enjoyed at the restaurant. The rules are: you can’t say it until we return home, the driveway counts, first to remember, wins. No […]
Gratitude isn’t a habit it’s a practice
“I was surprisingly at ease,” former President Jimmy Carter said at his press conference, recalling his emotions when his doctors told him they had found melanoma on his brain after doing surgery on his liver. “Call it clear thinking or mind over matter. Or simply: grace,” writes Sarah Kaufman in the August 21st issue of […]
Prayer for a Day Worth Thanking God
This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it. In gratitude, Lord, I offer it to you. That the rain has stopped. That I have a moment’s peace to recall That you know exactly what lies ahead, so into it we run, blindly, belatedly, but freely. Bring back […]
The Power of a Life Well-Lived
In honor and remembrance of John F Rilling, my dad, who would have celebrated his 80th birthday today. Psalm 37:1-6 Fret not yourself because of the wicked, be not envious of wrongdoers! For they will soon fade like the grass, and wither like the green herb. Trust in the Lord, and do good; so you […]
Exchanging Fear and Worry for Thanks
New every morning. Or after a nap, a good run, a walk around the lake. It’s not the rising and setting of sun that sets my mood, it’s the respite. A time to let the mind wander and tippy toe over the field of neurons who happily spark and ignite one another on their merry […]
Saving me for more than earning
There is something about a story told well. I can skip the narration, though it adds context. I can breeze through the detailed description, though it adds intensity. For me, the story comes alive in the dialogue between characters you have come to know and love as you have met them, journeyed with them, and […]
Am I gorging on grace?
A beautiful mosaic of blue descends on my bird feeder and begins gorging himself on the suet. Pulling great mouthfuls, he swallows, scattering whatever doesn’t fit in his beak all over the ground. Wasteful, ugly, unappreciative bird. Go away! Let someone else have a turn! I sit and watch through my kitchen window. We have […]
Punching holes in the darkness
I had never heard the story shared by Adam Hamilton in his 2013 Inaugural Prayer Service Sermon. He said, I’ll be telling the old story about Robert Louis Stevenson. Stevenson, the 19th-century author, once told how, as a boy, he’d been sitting in front of the window at nightfall, watching the lamplighter light the gas street lamps. He would erect […]
Endless supply, isn’t that clever of grace?
The strangest thing happens here at the base of the ski mountain every day at 3:00 pm. They hand out big, warm chocolate chip cookies. For free. To everyone who asks. They push their cart out filled with cookies, and a long line of small children scampers along behind. But it’s not just the small […]
Thanksgiving, a non-denominational holiday!
Frankly, I have been surprised and pleased by the good humor of people this week. I have been to the grocery store several times, the bank, the coffee shop, run errands, and all of it’s been peaceful, fun, even collegial. People are chatting while waiting in lines. Waiting patiently, even while you bag up your […]