16 Comments
User's avatar
curt schaefer's avatar

Probably got sent to spam ill look and get back to ya...looking forward to reconnecting with my wise friend!

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

i'm so glad to be back in touch with you, friend 💛

Expand full comment
curt schaefer's avatar

Did you get my card...just wondering?

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

Friend: i DID! (Did you get my note of reply -- sent to a Yahoo account?!) Lmk! I've been eager to reconnect ♥️

Expand full comment
Jen's avatar

Thanks JT for keeping us in the loop on this tumultuous journey. My mom and I are together right now and are remembering you in prayer. Was reading in 2 Corinthians with the boys the other night -- so much applicable truth for the hard earthly journey -- such a glory awaits these "light and momentary trials"... hard to imagine it sometimes -- but oh such a hope!

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

ah! sis: such hope indeed...

i've been listening to the psalms & willard's "life without lack" when sleep proves evasive as of late. such life-giving words we have as an anchor. (how i need to hear them -- again & again!)

thanks for sharing these, which i hear in your voice -- all the sweeter ♥️

Expand full comment
Olivia Davenport's avatar

I so enjoyed reading this post. So many things crossed my mind, and I just wished we could sit and share for a moment. Mostly, I thought about how much I hate being still so I can grow; it's hard work to learn the new life.

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

awh, sis! "hating to be still" -- yes & amen 🙋🏻‍♀️😛 (i feel that; you're in good company!)

and i agree! we've always had such good conversations: easy rapport + wise words. (i've come to see that those are gifts you bring wherever you go!)

Expand full comment
Marlene Craig's avatar

Dearest Jeanette, It hurts my heart to read that you will be going through more drug therapy and difficult times, but to read your words of wisdom in how once again the new normal will slowly but surely find you managing well a place that you can be comfortable, yet achieving goals that can only happen in God’s time and in God’s way is a huge inspiration to me. I am so blessed but as I enter into another stage of aging and find myself without the resolve and strength I once had, instead of feeling depressed about it all, I am encouraged to realize it is okay to go through changes and to alter ones life in the ways that it needs to be and still be fruitful in transformative ways. Trying to go with the ebb and flow of life.. Love you and thank you for being you.. Praying.

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

awh, sis ♥️ your words are always so life giving. i jotted these ones down in my journal just now -- wanting to ponder them, carry them:

"achieving goals that can only happen in God’s time and in God’s way" (may it be.)

interestingly, i was chatting with a friend this wk about other friends in caretaking mode -- and we made the observation that perhaps one of the most loving things we can do as we age is to gracefully receive new limits.

(maybe that's not the best language, but the sentiment seems to echo some of your thoughts here.)

i hope you are soaking up time with your fam still -- the generations altogether?!

sending love to ALL across the miles...jt

Expand full comment
Becky's avatar

Your words reminded me of the best graduation speech I ever heard (in truth: the only one I remember). The charge to graduates was to "live poetically." As in, with the clarity and skill and beauty of a poem. Poems almost always are written slowly, with care, and they are comprehended with similar effort. Thank you for encouraging me into the slowness and deliberateness of a life lived well.

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

wow! i would have remembered that one too. (ha! any chance you have the manuscript?!)

makes me think of one of my fav poems about poems: https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/17168/ars-poetica

^^the way it ends draws a tight circle around what you're saying, i think. (embodied wisdom)

MISS YOU! Have been especially thinking of you past couple of wks.

Expand full comment
Kori Bohn's avatar

Good reminders. The ordinary is where tranformation slowly, ever so slowly can occur. I always love reading what you write and make space to really take it in. Thanks for that. AND I am so sorry to hear of all the physical pain you are enduring dear friend. I cannot imagine how hard that is. Thanks for spuring me on today to submit to Him and know Him more.

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

sister: how well you know that pain is pain is pain. (thanks for these sweet words; i'm tenderhearted alongside your aches too ♥️)

Expand full comment
Andrew Jones's avatar

Resonating with this today. Thank you JT

Expand full comment
Jeanette Thomas's avatar

your earlier text = still making me cry 🤷🏻‍♀️🥲

Expand full comment