Category: Life’s Challenges

This Year’s Lesson: KINDNESS

What do an Italian psychotherapist, a Christian college president in California, and a hitchhiker across America have in common? They each wrote a book about kindness. And I read them all this year. As you may recall, “kindness” is my special word for 2016. Upon the suggestion of Debbie Macomber in her book, One Perfect…

Marian

December 20, 2016

Book Recommendations, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, New Year, Reflections

Barry Corey, Be ye kind, Biola University, BookBub, Christ in a dream, core virtue, crying baby, Dalai Lama, Debbie Macomber, Ephesians 4:32, Evangelical, firm center with soft edges, forgotten Christian virtue, fundamentally disagree wtih, hitchhiked penniless, hitchhiker, Italian, Kindle, kindness, kindness of strangers, Leo Tolstoy, Love Kindness, Mike McIntyre, newspaper columnist, One Perfect Word, Penniless across America, Piero Ferrucci, poor shoemaker, psychologist, psychotherapist, receivable, special word, storyteller, The Kindness of Strangers, The Power of Kindness, virtue
Jean: One of My Heroes

I met Jean Gunnulson 17 years ago. I had just agreed to be a substitute organist at the Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, and we were having our first music planning meeting. Four of us gathered together at 9:00 one morning in the church office – Pastor Dave, Cathy, Jean and myself. The first thing I learned…

Marian

December 13, 2016

Life’s Challenges, Music, Reflections

Allen organ, Borning Cry, Children’s clothing, church organist, floppy disk, hymn selection, Indian Reservation, inspiring people, Jean Gunnulson, midi, music planning meeting, Oakland-Cambridge Presbyterian Church, organist, substitute organist
Oh, No…

I guess I still have more to learn about GRATITUDE – my special word for last year. As I checked into my timeshare condo at Christmas Mountain last week the last thing on my mind was gratitude. First came disappointment. Then anger. Then “what now?” But let me backtrack… I wasn’t even supposed to be…

Marian

October 4, 2016

Life’s Challenges, Personal Retreats, Reflections

apple crisp, centipede, Christmas Mountain, Christmas Mountain Village, devotional book, disappointments, getaway, grateful, gratitude, hymn, important papers, Wisconsin Dells
Let’s Pray, Floey

“Hey, Mom. We need to have a talk.” “OK, Floey. What’s on your mind?” “Ever since you stopped writing your blog every week, I feel that we don’t talk at all. Oh, I know we still talk about the birds and the bees and the gophers when we’re on our walks – how beautiful the…

Marian

September 13, 2016

God’s Love, Jail Ministry, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

Amazing Grace, authentic prayer, balm in gilead, chaplain, communicating with God, conversation with Floey, conversation with God, Floey, glowing prayer, God’s healing, goldfinches, gophers, Joan Chittister, killing niece, Monastic Way, murdering niece, prayer, prayer circle, praying for each other, praying in jail, role of prayer, Teresa of Avila, The Monastic Way
Consistency vs. Change

Five years, four months, and one week. That’s how long I’ve been writing weekly blog posts for the Whispering Winds Blog. As of today, that’s 279 posts. I’ve been fortunate enough to have had something to write about every single week without exception. Sometimes the ideas have come from Mim, or Pastor Jeff, or something…

Marian

August 9, 2016

Jail Ministry, Life’s Challenges, Music, Reflections

change, Circle, Circle Community Health Center, Circle Community Health Fellowship, daily devotional, devotional based on hymns, funeral, inconsistency, Joan Chittister, kindness, making changes, music CD, music project, Philip Yancey, Soul Survivor, virtue of inconsistency, writing project
When Floey Scolded Me…

I was sitting at my desk, clicking away on my computer. Floey came trotting up to me and sat down. “Hey, what are you doing, Mom?” she asked. “Oh, hi, Floey. I just bought two new kindle books on Amazon.” “You what???? You just organized 2,000 books on your bookcases throughout the house, and you…

Marian

August 2, 2016

Book Recommendations, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

Barry Corey, book about kindness, book on kindness, built-in bookcase, Dalai Lama, Debbie Macomber, Evangelical, Evangelical authors, Floey, gratitude, Italian psychotherapist, joy, Kindle, kindle books, kindness, kindness theme, Love Kindness, Max Lucado, meow, my secret, Philip Yancey, Piero Ferrucci, psychotherapist, Religious Right, scolding, special word, The Power of Kindness
Two Thousand “Ducks in a Row”

Just imagine 2,000 ducks waddling around a big pond. Some wood ducks. Some mallards. Some plain white farmyard ducks. Some old. Some fluffy little yellow ducklings. And they’re all mixed up. Now imagine that it is your job to organize them by species and subspecies, and then line them up alphabetically by name – from…

Marian

July 26, 2016

Book Recommendations, Goals, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

2000 books, bookcase, books are friends, bookshelves, Country Comforts Bed and Breakfast, down-sizing sale, ducks in a row, favorite authors, give-away library, lending library, library, Max Lucado, organizing books, Philip Yancey, whispering winds, Whispering Winds Retreat Haven
Do Something!

“You’re not dead yet. Do something!” That’s what Pastor Jeff preached about at Messiah last Sunday. He talked about how difficult the past week had been – with two black men being shot in our country, just a day apart, and then five police officers being killed and more injured in Dallas just days later. When…

Marian

July 12, 2016

God’s Love, Jail Ministry, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

Buenos Vecinos, Christmas baskets, coats for inmates, Dane County Jail, Ellen Finn, Good Neighbors, Good Samaritan, Honduras, jail ministry, Jeff Vanden Heuvel, killing black men, operating expenses, Pastor Jeff, racial injustice, shooting black men, The Good Samaritan, Who are my neighbors?, Who is my neighbor?, winter coats, You’re not dead yet
Dot-to-Dot Life

Dot-to-Dot books were my absolute favorite activity books when I was a little girl – even better than coloring books – well, maybe my Red Ryder cowboy coloring book was the best of all – but other than that, dot-to-dot pages were my favorites. I could spend hours drawing lines from number to number…

Marian

July 5, 2016

Book Recommendations, Goals, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Reflections

50th high school class reunion, 50th reunion, activity books, career aspirations, career changes, career dreams, Catherine of Siena, class reunion, coloring books, David Viscott, destiny, different gifts, discovering our gifts, dot-to-dot, dot-to-dot books, early writings, Firstlight, God’s gift to us, high school reunion, Joan Chittister, Lee Kampstad, life calling, lifelong adventure, meaning of life, Merton, Monastic Way, Navy Parachute Rigger, one dot at a time, our gift to God, parachute jumping, purpose of life, Red Ryder, ripcord, selfhood, St. Catherine of Siena, Sue Monk Kidd, That First Step, The Monastic Way, vocation, work of life
God and I Planted a Garden. And it was Good.

God spoke: “Earth, green up! Grow all varieties of seed-bearing plants, Every sort of fruit-bearing tree.” And there it was. Earth produced green seed-bearing plants, all varieties, And fruit-bearing trees of all sorts. God saw that it was good. It was evening, it was morning – Day Three. [Genesis 1:11-13 The Message] One of the…

Marian

June 21, 2016

Gardening, God’s Love, Life’s Challenges, Nature, Reflections

being present at creation, container gardening, creation, creation story, cut flowers, cutting flowers, digging new potatoes, experiment, garden quotes, gardening, gardening experiments, Genesis 1, Genesis 2, lettuce, Miracle Grow, Miracle Grow Potting Mix, planting a garden, pumpkins, radishes, The Message, tomato, vegetable garden, zinnias