"Sabbath Calm"

I received an email from a friend yesterday.   She reminded me to "drink the calm of Sabbath time."  I also remember reading somewhere that for the first week of a sabbatical, one would be best off simply resting and catching up on sleep.

Not only am I not very good at resting and sleeping, I am also a list maker - and so I spent the first week of my sabbatical getting done all those things that had been piling up that I have not had time to get done.  I finished up and submitted the final report and budget to Calvin for our worship grant.  I wrote a wedding service.  I cleaned up my desk area, so now at least the papers are in orderly piles and I can follow up on some of my parents' medical bills as well as with MaineCare.  I went through bags and boxes of their clothing and possessions now that they have finally moved out of the assisted living facility where they were living and into a nursing home.  I made numerous trips to Goodwill and dropped off some items for the church Christmas fair.  In many ways, it hardly seemed like a restful week filled with "sabbath calm."

However, maybe that is my way of resting - or at least beginning to rest.  Maybe I have to take some items off my plate first before I can enter into that calm that lies at the heart of any clergy sabbatical.  Maybe my days will always be structured by lists.  Maybe it is how and in what mindset I do what is on those lists.

I am reading a book by Barbara Brown Taylor entitled An Altar in the World.  In it, she talks about finding God and a deepened spirituality in places other than church on Sunday morning and meaningful ways to experience the sacred in the little things we do.  And so she reminds us that we can find God in those everyday places where we feel an inner sense of peace - or maybe even in the midst of a great whirlwind where we find ourselves spinning.  She goes on, not surprisingly, to say that we need to pay attention if we are to encounter the Holy at times other than the hours we spend worshipping in church.  We need to develop a reverence for the world around us - the trees that bring us shade and maple sap, the summer sun, the stormy days.

For me, that means working on being intentional in my life.  It means attempting at least to live in the moment - away from the lists - and to savor the present.  It means not looking ahead and thinking how fast this sabbatical time will inevitably go - but rather enjoying the blessing that it is right now.

All that being said, I heading off now to my labyrinth to replace a few stones but mostly to soak in some of that "Sabbath calm."

Five Years Later.....

I haven't written in this blog since my last sabbatical - 5 years ago!  And here I am again - with four months (less one week) stretching out in front of me.  However, this sabbatical is different in a couple of fundamental ways from my first one.

The first way it is different is that the congregation and I are not blessed with a National Clergy Renewal Grant.  As a pastor-congregation team, we can only receive one such grant together.  That means this sabbatical will be much more low-keyed and home-based for me!

There will be no family trips to Peru (I will miss that - so many fond memories).  The time away for Joe and me will be bicycling in Nova Scotia rather than hiking in Scotland - but I know I will cherish those 12 days for just the two of us.  Instead of constructing a labyrinth, I will be maintaining the one I created five years ago.  There are a zillion pine needles to be raked, grass to be pulled, and native ferns to be transplanted.  Yet being outdoors and working intentionally on the circular path of the labyrinth will evoke the same sense of peacefulness.  Of that I am certain.  I will still be going to our cottage on Cache Lake in Algonquin Park in Ontario for a couple of weeks - another similarity to my first sabbatical - where the schedules of all of us will overlap for at least three or four days - and that will be wonderful.

This time I will find my sense of renewal in freezing vegetables from our garden, extending my perennial garden, blogging, and writing.  Perhaps my spirituality will be deepened working more consistently with the bees - and affirming that God can indeed be found in the wonder of honey production!

The second way this sabbatical is different is because I have known many people in the congregation for ten years now instead of just five.  Our lives are more intertwined now than they were in 2011.  I am concerned in a different way about folks as they have aged.  What if someone is injured?  What if someone dies?  What if someone with dementia does not know me when I return?  I find that I am bound more closely to people in my congregation than I was five years ago.  Our friendship runs deeper, and our spirits are tethered more strongly.

I look forward to the days and weeks ahead.....