Must have stood on this piece of wisdom in the cement floor six different days while waiting for my protein shake
at Sunlife before I looked down and finally got the message. Seize the day. THIS day. This is the day that the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in THIS ONE! It’s all we have, here, now, today. THIS ONE. Make it count. Smile. Share. Give. Forgive. Repeat.
#Easter #Blessings #Journey #Rejoice #Smile #Share #Forgive
“Just remember in the winter, far beneath the bitter snows lies the seed, that with the Son’s love in the Spring 
becomes The Rose”
#Easter #Blessings #Journey #ThreeWoodenCrosses
When you think of God, what do you “see” ? I got to thinking about that when I read this funny little story:
A Kindergarten teacher was observing her classroom of children while they were drawing. She would occasionally walk around to see each child’s work. As she got to one little girl who was working diligently, she asked what the drawing was. The girl replied, “I’m drawing God.” The teacher paused and said, “But no one knows what God looks like.” Without missing a beat, or looking up from her drawing, the girl replied, “They will in a minute.”
I believe our hearts long for someone to envision, even though are just no satisfying human words to express how we imagine the Infinite. For me, it’s always Light. Just Light, brighter than bright, deep and warm and somehow pulsing with Love, and Life itself. What about you? What do you “see”? What do you imagine it will be like to meet Him “face to face”?
Blessings to all,
Martha
Yesterday some of us began a 47 day journey to Easter. For other friends it was just another day. But for all of us, 
I pray we share this: that we will once again find ourselves on April 21 having made it through another winter, fed by unexpected generosity, encouraged by signs of new life, unafraid to spread our wings like my friend here in Colorado and try something bold in a cold season, trusting that our journey will end as it always does, with another Spring.
Blessings to all,
Martha
Are you ready? Today is Ash Wednesday and I’ve been thinking that I am ready. Ready for Lent. Ready to not only “give something up” for Lent, but to make a commitment “to” something for Lent. And my commitment is to share my journey to Easter this year, with some prayer, reflection, a touch of encouragement, and maybe even a smile or two. 
So many folks who have enjoyed “Touched By An Angel” or “Signed, Sealed, Delivered” or other productions I’ve had the privilege to produce, come from so many different faiths, even though it’s pretty general knowledge that I, myself, am a Christian. For me, that is a deeply personal journey that can’t be defined by the politics or the social or cultural opinions of the day. The word Christian and the phrase “born again” have been used and misused so often that more often than not I find myself saying, “yes, I’m a Christian” and then feeling that I have to go on and explain what I am NOT as much as what I am.
But going through some old journals the other day, I found something that I copied down for myself back in 1985. It was a short letter from a third century martyr named St. Cyprian to his friend Donatis. In a few words, this voice from almost two thousand years ago reminded me how very simple a person’s faith can be and still make a powerful difference. Here it is:
“This is a cheerful world as I see it from my garden under the shadows of my vines. But if I were to ascend some high mountain and look out over the wide lands, you know very well what I should see; brigands on the highways, pirates on the seas, armies fighting, cities burning, in the amphitheaters men murdered to entertain applauding crowds; selfishness, cruelty, misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatis, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They have found a joy which is a thousand times better than any pleasure of our sinful life. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatis, are the Christians, and I am one of them.”
May God bless each of us this Lenten season with simple truths. The truth of what we share and not what divides us. His enduring love for all. The joy that it brings. And may each of us find, with His help, a simple way to pass that on. Are you ready?
Somewhere back in the 1800’s a crew was digging under the city of Rome, and deep in the catacombs they discovered a box with the bones of a young woman about whom we know nothing and, perhaps, everything.
Her remains now lie in the new cathedral of Los Angeles, where I went for a visit last week. It’s called the Cathedral of our Lady of the Angels and it’s only been open since 2002 but it was built to last five hundred years. I was struck by so many remarkable things that I saw there. First, although it’s a Catholic Church, everything about it has been designed to make it the city’s cathedral, a place for people of many denominations to come together and worship. It’s architecture has been the center of some controversy; I like it. It’s old and new and simple and grand all at the same time. The sculpture of Mary above the main entrance, by the artist Robert Grahame, says it all. He gave her the eyes of one race, the nose of another, the lips of a third. She stands humbly and yet with great power, a long braid down her back, with her arms open in short sleeves, almost as if they’re rolled up and ready to go to work to bring everyone together in one place if only for a moment.
But it’s the image of another young woman there that I can’t get out of my mind. I didn’t actually see her. But I imagined her as I stood at the tomb of that young woman from the catacombs of Rome. St. Vibiana. When her remains were discovered over a hundred years ago, there was nothing on the box to identify her except a name: Vibiana, and a design, a sign actually, a half sun with rays emanating from it. A sign that those digging there recognized as a message from the early Christians: this person was killed because she believed in Jesus.
Vibiana’s death has been placed somewhere near 300 A.D. and they estimate her age to be around fifteen. Since then, all sorts of stories about her have been told; hopeful, encouraging stories, but stories nevertheless. All anyone really knows is that she lived and she died for Jesus. And that’s all I need to know about her.
We are so often assaulted these days by people who mock our faith in a loving and forgiving God. And sometimes the things they say, the facts they twist with sarcasm and wit and bullying, can challenge our faith and tempt us to doubt. But whatever the pundits say on TV is nothing, I imagine, to the mockery and abuse Vibiana must have faced in the cruel and brutal times of Roman persecution. How strong would we be if the words that late night critics threw at us were actually knives or bullets? Well, so far, we are still free to worship God as we choose in this country. And may we never take that freedom for granted.
As I said, the Cathedral was designed to last 500 years. And I hope it does. Because who knows who will stand at the tomb of Vibiana someday and draw courage from the life and the death of one, single girl.
One of the best parts of working in television and film, especially in the Internet Age, is the privilege of interacting with fans. And SIGNED, SEALED, DELIVERED is graced with a passionate – and talented – fan base. One such fan is devoting her efforts to Alameda & Downing – A Signed Sealed Delivered Blog.
The name comes from a very brief reference to the location of the DLO in Denver as reported in an article read by Rita in the last scene of the pilot. What attention to detail someone has!
The funny thing is that Alameda & Downing is actually a very unlikely location for a major post office. It’s only two blocks from Washington Park near a residential area about two or three miles from downtown Denver.
I used that intersection as a little nod to God – a reference to the intersection where, when I was walking to my junior high school one snowy morning, I slipped and fell directly in front of a speeding car. It is an absolute miracle that I wasn’t killed. But there wasn’t a scratch on me.
I often think of that place as the first time I realized that there really might be angels in the world and that God really DID have a plan for my life. How different my life would have been without an angel at the corner of Alameda & Downing.
~ Martha
Good morning, dear friends,
As the sun rose this morning while I was hiding Easter eggs in the yard for my – yes, teen-agers – I recalled the Easter Sunday when I was twenty and I made a choice between writing a philosophy paper or spending the first gorgeous day of Spring at a brunch and an Easter egg hunt with my friends in my last year of college. I don’t remember what grade I received for that philosophy paper, but still regret walking down that green Berkshire hill and leaving my friends behind that beautiful morning.
I remember another Easter brunch about twenty years ago. I was sitting outside beside a lake with a new friend. He looked out at the families arriving at the restaurant after church and said “I’m a Christian, too, you know. I think Jesus was amazing.”
I looked up. Was? Jesus was, or is?
He shrugged. “Well, I mean, I don’t buy all that resurrection stuff, of course. That just had to be a lot of propaganda the disciples made up to keep the faith going in the early years.” I smiled and put down my hot cross bun and said quietly, “So, you don’t believe Jesus rose from the dead.” He laughed and said “Well, come on. Nobody is dead and buried and then rises from the dead.” That, I told him, was the point. Nobody ever had before. Nobody has since. But if one Someone did, then that’s the guy I want to know. “Well,” he said. “I’m just not a person of faith, I guess.” “Oh, but you are,” I said. “You have great faith. You’re putting all your faith in the belief that Jesus died on the cross and never lived again. You’re betting that a bunch of his friends decided to create a lovely fairy tale and chose to be tortured and crucified or stoned or executed in some other horrible way just to keep that fairy-tale going rather than back off and say, “hey, okay, I wasn’t there. I didn’t see Him. It was just a bunch of propaganda.” You’re counting on the possibility that a successful, educated guy like Saul gave it all up to become Paul, a prisoner of Rome, just to perpetuate the myth of his face-to-face meeting with the dead man he reviled. You’re rejecting the chance that the Unseeable, Unmeasurable Energy that keeps your heart beating and your mind thinking and your love growing will somehow disappear into nothingness at the instant that your body dies. You are trusting that all you know about life is all there is to know. That’s a lot of faith, if you ask me.
In my case, my faith is pretty simple. I just trust God. I trust the answer I received when I got down on my knees one night and asked “Is it true? Is He risen?” I trust the peace I have carried with me ever since. I trust the joy I feel every Easter when I call my sisters and say “He is risen” and hear the words back “He is risen, indeed.” Maybe my faith is simple, but I don’t believe God would make His love so complicated that only the scholar or philosopher could comprehend it. God’s love must be available to everyone or it means nothing. I think that’s called a categorical imperative. I think I wrote a paper on that once, in fact – once, on a beautiful Easter Sunday locked away in a dorm room while the sun rose outside.
By the way, the man I had brunch with? He prayed that prayer. He got his answer. He was baptized a year or so later. And then he married me.
Happy Easter,
with love from Martha
Wherever I go, folks always ask me the same question: “We loved “Touched By An Angel” and its message of love and faith and family.
What are you doing NOW, Martha?
”Well, I’m doing the best I can.I’m trying to be a good mother to my teen-age girls, I’m helping my husband recover from a stroke and learning to be an effective care giver. I’m still trying to process the fact that the AARP is now sending me letters! I’m learning to get healthy and stay healthy, I’m still learning how to be a better wife and sister and neighbor and friend, and, after thirty years in show business, I’m still writing family and inspirational television and films and now I’m expanding my horizons to include speaking to groups and even singing on stages. But most important, I’m still walking the road of faith and praising God every day for the amazing blessings of being alive.
But more important than what I’m doing is what YOU are doing! How is your heart? Where are your dreams taking you? Do they still inspire you or are they hard to hold on to? What do you need to hear that will encourage you to carry on?
That’s what this website is for – to hear from you and to share with you a little daily encouragement, some inspirational storytelling, messages of hope and faith, weekly videos filled with love and laughter and hopefully a little wisdom!
But I can’t do it without you, so please visit often and share your comments and your own messages of encouragement. Remember that none of us is perfect – some days are harder than others, some days we let others down and sometimes we let ourselves down. But EVERY DAY is a God-given chance to begin again. Let’s do it together.
Love, Martha