Heart Matters Blog

Happy Labor Day! LuAnn, Julie and Sally 

At every moment and every situation, God is the intimate, attentive and encouraging friend. — John O'Donohue/ Anam Cara I love my precious Savior… You are acquainted with all my ways… —Psalm 139:3. He walks so intimately with me; on this journey I am on. A journey with dementia and primary progressive aphasia. I love this quote by Frederick Buechner, "If we keep our hearts and minds open, if we listen with patience and hope…then I think we come to recognize, beyond all doubt, that however faintly we may hear him, he is indeed to speaking to us…his word comes to each of us is precious beyond telling." "Like singing on a boat during a terrible storm at sea. You can't stop the raging storm but singing can change the hearts and spirits of the people who are together on that ship." ― Anne Lamot...

He leads me beside quiet waters… he restores my soul. —Psalm 23:2 I am sitting by still waters today, but there is a party on the lake. People having fun; diving in and dive-bombing into the water. Someone is tubing on the lake as well, and jets skis too. It is not exactly quiet, but it does restore my soul. Just when I was going to write that it is calmed down now, there is another whoop from the party boat. It is so peaceful here by the water, despite the party. I took my shoes off and dangled my feet in the lake. I love the sound of water lapping up on the shore. It is so soothing. It reminds me of the Allegheny River when I was young. My Grandpa Simey would take us out on the rowboat. We would pack a lunch and I remember the waves lapping on the shore of the river as we parked our boat...

The season of summer is still warming our bones, the fields are looking good for harvest, and we will soon be welcoming the biblical holidays of Rosh Hashanah, the biblical New Year, Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement and Sukkoth, the festival of booths. These are known as The High Holy Days of the Judaic / Hebrew calendar and as believers they are our inheritance too. I have marked these Holy Days for at least the last ten years and they have been such a gift to my spiritual and physical journey, often with no need for a binary division, as it seems that the physical and spiritual truly are ONE, if we have eyes to see it. Before we arrive at these Holy Days God invites us to participate in a process of preparation which is marked by the 12th month of the Hebrew / Judaic calendar, Elul. (The...

Her hand slapped the edge of the pool. Then her head emerged from the aqua blue water, and she turned around to look at the results; her mouth became an uppercase O as she pulled her goggles up in case she was seeing it wrong. But she wasn't! Seventeen-year-old Lydia Jacoby became the first gold-medal swimmer from Alaska, and the first swimmer to receive gold at the Tokyo Olympics. She beat out defending gold-medalist Lilly King and other favorites in the 100-meter breaststroke. Her fans in her hometown erupted with joy and celebration, a favored scene replayed many times. We all celebrated with her in spirit. This story was just one amazing rose in a bouquet of many exciting and inspiring moments this Olympics. Stories of athletes overcoming severe sickness, devastating injuries, pov...