Back home (kind of)
MM: Ginny & H went on to meet up with family in Michigan; I will be joining them for the week of the 4th. Glad to be home. Lots to process. Here are some pics from the NY trip. I decided since the city can seem so big and overwhelming to photograph, I would focus on one street. So here is a glance at a stroll on 54th, from 6th to the water. What can I say? I like the cabs.
NY meet the Mooneys
We leave tomorrow morning for Hazel’s first trip to New York. Ginny thinks she’ll love it; I don’t think she’ll know we’re gone. By way of details, we will be on The Today Show at 8am this Wednesday (June 24). It will be on at 8am in your time zone no matter where you are in the states, or so I am told. We’ll be placing updates on the twitter account listed in the post below.
another ripple…in New York
MM: Summer has been a whirlwind thus far. The three of us headed to Waco, TX last week in order for me to perform a wedding for some great friends. It was the first time doing that, and, well, they’re married. I had the paradoxical honor of speaking at Eliot’s funeral. Like never before, it was something, for some unknown reason, that I felt I had to do. Wanted to do. And although “difficult” does not begin to explain the toll of that experience, I no doubt live in light of the satisfaction that being Eliot’s father on that day…
Fayetteville glow
MM: A storm rolled through this evening right at dusk. We snapped some photos in amazement of the colors. It was quite a spectacular site with the whole sky ablaze with oranges and deep reds. The three of us are heading to Waco, Texas tomorrow. I am doing a wedding for some good friends of ours. Should be a great time. I have been working on my attitude about officiating a wedding- which whispers to me that all you can do at a wedding is screw it up. Seriously, what is a “good wedding”….one where something doesn’t go wrong. My…
Scattered
We are enjoying all of the things that summer brings with it: eating on the deck, shorts, flip flops, and longer days. It all seems to fly by as of late. I am sure I am to blame some conglomeration of busyness, getting older or life with a drooler. Ginny is beautifully juggling motherhood and jewelry design (www.theadditionshop.com) along with the numerous items to which I commit her. I am enjoying both of my jobs: working with communities for my church and business consulting (www.brandvillages.com) with companies and individuals who need some outside perspective. It is two very different worlds…
Long weekend in Lake Providence & a question for you.
Thought I would drop an update. We are heading to Lake Providence for a wedding this weekend. We will be the ones with a U-Hail trailor, truck, and a babyseat. Should be a fun drive. Lots of thoughts for Ginny and I swirling around lately. I expect these thoughts could give birth to some blog posts soon. We recently have been challenged in some great ways to live out what we profess. We’re interested to see where we are led by way of these thoughts. Should be fun. If this all sounds cryptic. Well, it is. I still have not…
Weekly Interrogative
MM: The vacations have been great. I highly recommend everyone taking a break and getting away with the ones you love. There will always be excuses not to. But I intend it to be high priority around the Mooney house. So, I have a question for you. We’ll try to start posting these on Wednesdays so you can know when one is coming. Today’s question may seem to have bad timing, but I assure you it is purposeful. I waited until after all the election fireworks to ask it: What do you think a Christian’s role in politics should be?…
the beach
last week we went on our first ever family vacation. matt, hazel & i loaded up with two other families & drove to florida to spend a few days. it was spectacular…& with 6 adults & 6 kids a bit of beautiful chaos as well. friends, sun, sand, ocean, pool, bikes, games, laughter, the smell of sunscreen & sweat & the feel of the sea breeze. it was a great vacation. yet, as with everything in our lives from here on out, there is the ache of missing eliot. the ache ebbs & flows with the days & seasons. this…
Surprise
Do you see it? It’s there in my backyard. Can you see? Maybe I’m the only one, but I see it. Oh, it is so clear. There, filling my backyard & my home last weekend…Glory. The face, touch, words, presence of a very real God, alive & bursting forth from His people. This may seem like a dramatic description of my friends & of a simple gathering, but it is a very true description. Monday was my half birthday. A strange thing to note, but when Eliot went home to be with Jesus it was October 27th, my actual birthday….
Painting of Pain
With all the unwanted spare time of both Miss Things still traveling, here is something I have been meaning to put up here. Here is the link to the podcast from our time in Milwaukee in which we both spoke on grief.
Matt & Ginny start the second half of season 1 with a seemingly simply question: What is a good life? An entire episode focused on the life of a man known as Bulldog– told through the eyes of his brother, Chris Wheeler. It is a journey of Chris beginning to see a person who was…
In the age of television talent shows galore, our hosts attend one that manages to flip the narrative of what a talent show is & could be. Chelsea, Jordan & Claire want to sing at the bEfriend talent show hosted by 99 Balloons, but to do so they will have to overcome their fear of…
Matthew Lyle & Ginny Mooney continue the discussion of healing and the church by delving into the lives of their friends with disability who do not want to be healed, cured or fixed. When they stumble upon an article, written by Madeleine Ryan, entitled Dear Parents: Your Child with Autism is Perfect it is though…
When the loss of a child becomes a nationwide, prayer movement to #wakeupolive what does it say about the church and its relationship to healing? to suffering? In the first part of a two-part series discussing healing & the church, Matthew Lyle Mooney along with his wife, Ginny Mooney, set out to discuss the awkward…
Summer is here. At 5, 6 and 8 we got rascals riding bikes and swimming at a skill level whereby we are not in constant stress. I told Ginny sometime some summer not long ago that I was done going to pools. With 3 that cannot swim alone, I can only act like I’m listening…
I’ve worked hard to develop a new habit of carving out Monday mornings to sit and think and pray and grasp for some semblance of sanity before I cannonball into the week that will eat my lunch if I let it. It’s a rebellious act of counter-intuition as weekends are supposed to be the very…
We’ve reached that point in these beloved Ozarks where we’re just all waiting around for the good weather. We get all four seasons here; just enough of winter to know we don’t want to move north; which we needed no help knowin’. Being bone-tired of Ole Man Winter being a hanger-on is all you’re allowed…
I often look at my backside in the mirror. I move quickly past the place that you imagined I was seeking and find the splotchy spot just above the bend of my right leg. It’s my biggest scar- remnants of days I spent riding my Honda 80 dirt bike for hours on end along the…
Check it out, Ginny & Lena are in the current edition of National Geographic. A while back, a wonderful photographer followed our family around for a few days in order to capture photos illustrative of an article on brain development…fascinating article and wonderful pictures (we think). _____________________________________ If…
Against my better judgment, Ginny convinced me last Monday to sit beside her and watch the American Music Awards. I begrudgingly complied- mainly due to the fact that I love her and if she invites me to sit close to her, I do it- every time. I’m a sucker that way, but that doesn’t mean…