Dear Friend,

I am sitting here in the sunshine on this first day of June. It's humid and the sweat drips off my forehead onto this letter. My hands are glistening with perspiration but, well... it feels good... the heat. It's been a long cold spring.

It's like when the kids come trundling into the house from college laden with dirty laundry and dragging guitars and amps and cords all of which get dropped in the living room. Yet they also bring laughter and music and joy back into our quiet home. It is all good.

It feels like that, this coming of summer. And just as I am so glad for the kids to come home again I am also glad for their leaving in the fall even as I feel the regret of the lonelier months to come.

Everything changes. But life is still good.

Dear Bride

This morning I wanted to sleep in... but was wide awake by 6:00 a.m. with thoughts of all that needed to be done today, your wedding day!

I began to make a schedule in my head of all that would need to be accomplished. I arose to make some coffee, thinking that these few rare moments of quiet before the rest of the house awakens would be just what I needed to get me in the right frame of mind for all my duties and the hectic day that lay ahead.

I settled into my chair with the steamy beverage and looked to my bookshelf for a morning devotion. My hand fell upon a book entitled You Bring the Umbrella, Lord by Joy Morgan Davis. I opened it to this little prayer. It calmed me so much that I wanted to share it with you on this most glorious of stress-filled, joy-filled days.

The Song

Dear God...
You amaze me!
You enter my mind In tiny sunbeams of thought
Enlightening
Lifting
Putting me at peace...
So that suddenly
From within, my
Eyes see clearly as tho the
Curtains had been parted
Or the underbrush pulled away
From in front of a cave...

And I walk out,
Singing softly.

And so... Forget all the worries and strain of these last few weeks. The decisions are made and the plans are in motion. All is well and you are ready. We are ready. Enjoy today! Trust! Just let the day happen all around you as you walk joyfully into the waiting arms of your beloved. Let go and let God!