Still Savoring A Sabbatical … and "Taking Back Time"

          The busy days of early fall have come, but not dimmed the memories of a great sabbatical summer. There's no good way to summarize all that it meant, in traveling, thinking and writing, reading, enjoying worship and music in other settings, spending more time in spiritual reflection, and more time enjoying family.

          Cathy and I spent an awesome couple weeks in Scotland - one week on Iona, staying in the ancient abbey and taking in a conference on diversity, and then traveling on to other places in the islands and highlands. Later, I took a solo drive to New Mexico, for a week's seminar at Ghost Ranch Conference Center, and exploring states and cities along the way for "signs of the Spirit". If you'd like to read several things I've written about these adventures, just ask me.

          I've been anxious to share the good things that these three months did for my spirit, and have found various ways to do so. One way has been to urge our members to join in the effort promoted by the Massachusetts Council of Churches called "Take Back Your Time". It is a way to help us begin to get more balance in our lives - by committing ourselves (and families?) to four "windows of time" (evenings, daytimes, whenever) when we will do things that renew our spirits and our connection to creation and God.

          One day on my westward journey, I took a "route less traveled" in New Mexico, on my way to Santa Fe. I saw few other cars on the road, which wound up and over a mountain pass. It was time for my daily peanut butter and jelly lunch, and I stopped at a lone table by the road. For one of the first times in my life, I was truly "Surprised by quiet". No traffic sounds; no background hum of civilization's machinery. I could hear the softest breeze stir the brush, and one distant song bird. Then, I noticed the air - it's freshness, with a hint of juniper or sage. It was a small moment of epiphany: both for the place and its effects, and for my own being "mindful" of things I have not been used to noticing.

          I hope and pray that God will continue to surprise me with such moments, and that we each will find the ways, and take the time, to create greater possibilities for noticing the Spirit in our lives.

          And my deepest thanks to you all for encouraging my sabbatical, and providing so well for the life of the church while I was away.

Rod