My son Paul and I have traveled in 4 hours from hot, humid Miami to hot (90 degrees this afternoon when our plane landed), dry Minnesota. The adventure has begun! What seemed so far away when I first began writing the grant proposal over 15 months ago and then when I received the grant in September, 2007, has finally arrived. I am on an actual, honest to goodness Sabbatical. For the next 4 months I do not have to think about Church stuff. I do not have to write any sermons, or plan worship, or teach a class, or mediate a conflict, or plan a program, or keep a calendar. For the next 4 months I have only one have-to: to learn Spanish. I don't even start that for a month.
These first 3 weeks Paul and I will just spend time "being". No expectatioins. No requirements. We are going into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area (BWWCA) for 6 days/5 nights. We will paddle and swim, camp and cook, eat and relax, take pictures and see what we can see. We will be without cell phones, laptops, ipods, TV, video games. We will be spending life at its most basic level. I am excited and looking forward to these first 8 days almost as much as the entire rest of the sabbatical. I am very excited about my time in South America, but I love the Boundary Waters. This is my sixth trip into this wilderness and it always restores and renews my soul. This place touches the romantic in me and evokes my yearnings for closer connections with the natural world in all its wonder and glory.
Last Sunday was my final worship service and really my last day of responsibility at the church for the next 4 months. I did not have to preach, thanks to my friend and colleague, Bill Koch, Southeast Regional Conference Minister of the Florida Conference UCC who joined our celebration and delivered the sermon. It was a relatively easy Sunday for me and the congregation threw a wonderful Bon Voyage Luncheon/Party after worship. Lots of heartfelt well wishes and encouragement was shared and a generous gift that surprised me. The gift of the time away was generous enough, but this additional support speaks of a deep love and sense of support. My heart was deeply touched. They truly sent me off in style!
There were a million details to arrange before I left. I feel I have done all I can and everything needed to prepare them to function well in the next 4 months. It was a much larger task than I envisioned and I am not sure I started preparing the congregation and myself early enough, but all has been done and at this point I can do no more. I leave them in God's care and in the capable hands of the Rev. Dr. Sheila Guillaume, who is Sabbatical Interim Pastor, and in the capable hands of many leaders in the Church, all of whom are very capable. I know they will do well and the church will do fine. It will be most interesting when we come back together to share our experiences.
This was a long post, but I will not be posting anymore for the next seven days until we come out of the woods. Until then, I pray you find your own time for sabbath.
These first 3 weeks Paul and I will just spend time "being". No expectatioins. No requirements. We are going into the Boundary Waters Wilderness Canoe Area (BWWCA) for 6 days/5 nights. We will paddle and swim, camp and cook, eat and relax, take pictures and see what we can see. We will be without cell phones, laptops, ipods, TV, video games. We will be spending life at its most basic level. I am excited and looking forward to these first 8 days almost as much as the entire rest of the sabbatical. I am very excited about my time in South America, but I love the Boundary Waters. This is my sixth trip into this wilderness and it always restores and renews my soul. This place touches the romantic in me and evokes my yearnings for closer connections with the natural world in all its wonder and glory.
Last Sunday was my final worship service and really my last day of responsibility at the church for the next 4 months. I did not have to preach, thanks to my friend and colleague, Bill Koch, Southeast Regional Conference Minister of the Florida Conference UCC who joined our celebration and delivered the sermon. It was a relatively easy Sunday for me and the congregation threw a wonderful Bon Voyage Luncheon/Party after worship. Lots of heartfelt well wishes and encouragement was shared and a generous gift that surprised me. The gift of the time away was generous enough, but this additional support speaks of a deep love and sense of support. My heart was deeply touched. They truly sent me off in style!
There were a million details to arrange before I left. I feel I have done all I can and everything needed to prepare them to function well in the next 4 months. It was a much larger task than I envisioned and I am not sure I started preparing the congregation and myself early enough, but all has been done and at this point I can do no more. I leave them in God's care and in the capable hands of the Rev. Dr. Sheila Guillaume, who is Sabbatical Interim Pastor, and in the capable hands of many leaders in the Church, all of whom are very capable. I know they will do well and the church will do fine. It will be most interesting when we come back together to share our experiences.
This was a long post, but I will not be posting anymore for the next seven days until we come out of the woods. Until then, I pray you find your own time for sabbath.
1 comment:
So glad to hear you started your sabbatical right. Julio and I were meditating on you and on ourselves out in the wildernesses of northern Georgia, Tennessee, and North Carolina (when we weren't trying to track deer, black bear, otters or Sasquatch). This is such a beautiful country and I can certainly identify with you as our cellphones (and therefore our city-life obligations) had no range and there's no wifi at 6,000 feet of altitude. Just me, the mountain and God. It was evolutionary for us to just be able to sit comfortably without speaking to one another as two human beings.
As for Charlotte, while she slept for most of the drives and hikes, she did learn how to take photographs of her parents and things she found pretty as well as basic conservation concepts like refusing to patronize a live bear cub photo concession and not picking flowers/plants in national parks and estate gardens. While some of this knowledge was heartbraking for her (and subsequently for me as well) she also experienced a brand of liberty she doesn't get in Miami. Not only did she wander barefoot (but not alone) across the street to a neighbors yard but she also got to play in the backyard woods and creek of the place we were staying at.
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