I trust in your unfailing love. Psalm 13:5 After my second surgery my husband and I spent a week at the beach. Both of us needed to recuperate from the many weeks of uncertainty and strain. It was the week of our thirty-seventh wedding anniversary. So we needed to both rest and celebrate. We were no longer waiting for results. We were no longer anticipating the possibility of radiation therapy. … [Read more...] about Know That You Are Loved

He tends his flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. Isaiah 40:11 One summer we took a trip to Maine to visit family. While there, we went to an island off the coast to spend a few days hiking. On one of our hikes, my husband commented on the fact that the trail we were on was no longer a trail but a long series of boulders we had to scramble … [Read more...] about Let Yourself Be Carried

This is the day that the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 The kind of cancer I had was not life-threatening, but because of the diagnosis, I came to know more directly than ever before that I am not immune from catastrophic illness and death. With this refresher course in personal mortality came a heightened capacity to taste the sweetness of life. Life is often … [Read more...] about Celebrate Each Day

There is a time for everything, and a season for everything under heaven, a time to weep and a time to laugh. Ecclesiastes 3:1,4 Many years ago when I was first dating my husband, he made the comment that it might be good for me to learn to laugh more. At the time I was so serious about everything that I didn’t really know what he was talking about. I have learned to lighten up over the … [Read more...] about Make Room for Laughter

You turned my wailing into dancing; you removed my sackcloth and clothed me with joy. Psalm 30:11 I learned that I had cancer on a Thursday afternoon. The next morning I was planning to meet with a friend for breakfast. We have been meeting regularly for more than twenty three years. This particular Friday morning was to be our Christmas celebration. I had called her the night before to let her … [Read more...] about Stay Open to Joy

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 107:1 Every year just before or after New Year’s Day my husband and I plan a special date. We go out to lunch or dinner and sit together for some time compiling a gratitude list for the year that is about to end. We have been doing this for more than a decade. Typically we end up with a list of seventy to eighty items for … [Read more...] about Express Gratitude

Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted. Matthew 5.4 I was first introduced to the term “grief work” as a nursing student in my early twenties. I knew nothing about grief. The religious culture in which I had been raised didn’t grieve much. At least not that I ever saw. Our preachers sometimes said things at funerals that would stun the average person. Things like, “This is not a … [Read more...] about Grieve