A New Commitment to Sabbath Time

The sky was bright blue. There was a gentle breeze blowing off the Gulf of Mexico, which was shimmering invitingly beyond the mangroves & Australian pines. Sitting on my father-in-law’s fifth floor balcony in Naples on Wednesday morning, October 22, working on my submissions for the church newsletter, I wished that was my office setting all the time. I would really enjoy working in such a relaxed setting with such a beautiful, inspiring view.

Later that day Dianne and I then drove north to Clearwater Beach and set up shop on the ninth floor of the Hilton, with a balcony facing north presenting a view of Clearwater Bay and the condos, homes and palm trees of this sleepy little island to the east, and of the beach and the Gulf of Mexico to the west. While this was been a working trip for Dianne who went there to conduct the wedding of the youngest child of a life-long friend she has known since they were both 10 years old, for me it was another form of Sabbath retreat. Yes, I did engage in some work activities: finishing up my newsletter submissions as I previously mentioned, answering emails from parishioners and colleagues, scheduling a substitute preacher for an upcoming Sunday, participating in a conference call meeting of a committee of the Florida Conference UCC, and doing some reading as research for Sunday’s sermon. Even so, there was a much more relaxed rhythm to my days, with work slipped into the seams and edges of the day, while there were also many renewing and regenerating activities composing the bulk of my activity. Each day included a 75 minute walk on the beach (twice at sunrise, once in the middle of the day). I read the New York Times from front page to back every day (a much more complete, comprehensive, and interesting newspaper than my hometown Miami Herald). All three meals every day were relaxed times with Dianne, without a TV and with good conversation. I even enjoyed a little bit of pleasure reading, starting the Pat Conroy novel, South of Broad.

Early in my career as a pastor I read somewhere the suggestion that a pastor ought to schedule a monthly retreat for the purpose of self-renewal, spiritual regeneration and growth. I never felt I could afford to do that every month. I have always been very faithful about observing and keeping my day off each week (of course most people in the work force in the US get two days off, but clergy never seem entitled to that perk). I have also, occasionally, tried to schedule a quarterly retreat, a few days away from my ministry setting, usually at a retreat house. But I have never established even that as a regular pattern. But since my Sabbatical, when I learned how truly renewing time away from the regular schedule of responsibilities, activities, and expectations can be, this past year I have been reflecting more upon the nature of Sabbath as time away. As I look back at the year, especially through these blog posts, I realize I have had some sort of time away almost every month. Some of it has been around family concerns; my father’s failing health and then death, my children going off to law school and college, attending this wedding to support Dianne. Some of it has been more related to work; attending the Florida Conference Annual Meeting and staying over an extra day to enjoy Daytona Beach with my wife. And some has been family vacation time; our trip to Chicago to celebrate Dianne’s birthday with family, our quick trip to Savannah in September.

The result has been a more relaxed pastor during the more common active periods of ministry. I have been able to go about my work with greater energy, a better balanced sense of priorities and perspective, and a fresher capability for creativity. This past year this schedule evolved more by accident than by planning. Having a better understanding of the benefit such a schedule provides, however, leads me to the decision that I want to commit to such a schedule in the future. Toward that end I plan to take a mini-retreat each month this next year. If I will be away during the month for Conference related business or vacation time, I will dedicate a part of that time away to some intentional Sabbath time of reflection and renewal. If such time does not present itself in a month, I will take a 2-3 day mini-retreat during one week of the month and get away from my home, my regular routine, and set aside the time to spend in intentional prayer and reflection on life and my ministry. Such a schedule should provide great benefit to me and to my ministry, and possibly ensure a longer tenure with renewed energy and a healthier attitude and outlook. Stay tuned for more updates on the Sabbath Tango experiment!

Sabbath Tango is a Difficult Dance

I am really struggling to keep posting to this blog. I had set myself a goal of having at least one post each month this year, and here it is almost to the end of September before I am adding something for this month. The month almost slipped by without a post, and I even had 10 days off from work for vacation time with Dianne this month! I must say, it was a very mixed bag as far as vacation time goes. We had to begin the time with a trip to Naples, FL to check on her father who is having some health issues and then we had to end the time with another trip to Naples the last two days to check up on him again. Thankfully, the two trips resulted in good news from the doctors visited, so they were certainly worthwhile and necessary.

Sandwiched between these two trips to Naples was a quick trip to Savannah, GA, which is apparently becoming our new "favorite" southern city. (Sorry Charleston, you are being edged out by your neighbor to the south!) Savannah is a lovely, old south city filled with charm, story, restored 150 year-old houses and other architectural structures, lovely shaded squares, and very gracious hospitality. It also has a beach on Tybee Island (which Charleston has, too) which is very necessary for us as both of us worry we will dry up and wither away if we are ever removed too far from an ocean for too long! We had a very nice time in Savannah. The B & B where we stayed was lovely and very comfortable. The hosts were most attentive and prepared very delicious & filling breakfasts. We had some exquisite meals, very delicious and at least one, very gourmet! We enjoyed some jazz and some street artists.

It was a very enjoyable 4 days. But it did not have the feel of "sabbath" time. Why was that? It was vacation. It was a break from my regular routine. But it was not that special, step aside and live life at a different pace, time. It was somewhat diminished by the fact that I had not completed the work I needed to finish before leaving by Sunday, and so a big chunk of Monday and Tuesday, when I was in Naples, and then back in Miami before leaving for Savannah, was spent working on articles for the Church newsletter. I think it was also kept from being Sabbath time because of the time spent attending to my father-in-law's medical needs. (That was important time and necessary for us to pay attention to, but it was not sabbath time.) And then, for some reason, we filled the time in Savannah to the brim with activity: visiting Fort Pulaski (which was very interesting); visiting the Tybee light house; visiting Bonaventure Cemetery; visiting antique dealers and old houses, including the Mercer-Williams house, which was made famous by Johnny Mercer, whose great-grandfather began building the house before the Civil War, did not finish the house after the war, sold it to someone else, and no other Mercer, including Johnny, ever lived in the house! Everything we did was interesting. But in the short time we were there it felt like we filled the time too much with activity and not enough with laid-back, down-time, with no activity except perhaps to read, enjoy the gardens of the B & B, maybe even sleep some extra time.

What I would conclude is Sabbath Time is hard to find. We do not live in a world that encourages or nurtures sabbath time activities. Even our regular Sabbath Days, (Saturday for the Jews and Seventh-Day Adventists and Sunday for Christians) are filled with activity. For most of us, finding even an hour on Sabbath Day to gather with others for worship is often difficult. And forget about trying to find sabbath time during the rest of the week. Unless you have been laid-off, downsized, or had your hours cut-back, because of the bad economy, you are not working a 40 hour week, you are working a 50 or 60 hour week, often spread over 6 days instead of 5. On top of that you are needing to spend many hours attending to chores and tasks at home. So actually finding time for rest, relaxation, meditation, worship, just being and enjoying creation, it very, very difficult. It is most certainly a dance. As "Dancing with the Stars" has demonstrated for all America, to master a dance takes hard, hard work, time, and dedication. We keep wanting sabbath time to just "materialize" and when it doesn't, we don't seem to know how to advocate for our right to it and are afraid to proclaim how important it is. I wish I had an answer, but instead, as my minimal posts illustrate, it is a difficult tango for me to master as well.

Enjoy the pictures above of Savannah. It is a lovely city. And I encourage you to keep practicing your sabbath tango, as I promise to keep trying to do as well!

Final Post from South America!

Dianne is packing, and I am trying to hang on to my South America time by writing one more post for the blog. We had a wonderful final day in Lima, Peru. We began the day with a harrowing 30-minute taxi ride to Lima central and the Plaza de Armas. It is quite impressive, lined on two sides by yellow colonial buildings with Moorish balconies, on one side by the Cathedral and Archbishop's residence, and on the fourth side by government Palace. We toured the Cathedral, which was quite impressive and somewhat macabre. In the crypt below the central nave there is a display behind glass of quite a few human skulls and apparently the rest of the bones of the bodies buried there. No names, no indication to whom the bones belonged. There are also quite a few displays of religious art, including religious artifacts made from gold and silver.

Just as we were finishing our tour of the Cathedral, I heard music floating through the door from the main plaza. Emerging into the sunlight my gaze was drawn to brightly colored uniformed band members behind the bars of a wrought iron fence surrounding an apparent government building. Inquiring of the guard at the Cathedral door I learned that the music indicated the daily changing of the guard at the government building. It was about a 30 minute ceremony with lots of music, goose-stepping guards, trumpets, flags, etc. Unfortunately it all took place behind the iron fence and the riot police kept the tourists and school children gathered to watch, on the other side of the street from the fence. Still, it was quite an impressive ceremony.

Following lunch near the plaza, we caught another taxi back to Miraflores and visited LarcoMar, a shopping mall built into the cliffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It is a stunning setting, but a sad place from my perspective because it looks as though it was clearly built and financed by American money. The majority of the stores are US brands and it feels it could be in Anytown, US as much as in Lima, Peru. But the gelato we enjoyed was delicious, as was the coffee. And both were even better as we were sitting at a table overlooking a beautiful spring afternoon sun shining over the Pacific Ocean.

After finally enjoying a dramatic sunset we made our way back to El Señorío del Sulco, where we had a gourmet dinner our first night in Lima. We wanted to ensure we had a wonderful final dinner and we were not disappointed as Dianne dined on a suckling pig roasted in a pisco sauce and I enjoyed a lamb shank along with a mashed corn side dish. They were accompanied by another fine Peruvian Tacama Blanco y Blanco wine and topped off by a very sweet, but tasty pudding desert. A fine way to close out our adventure in Lima, in Peru, in South America.

Tomorrow we board a Lan Peru flight for Miami and back to our normal reality. I am sure I will be processing and enjoying this adventure for months to come, perhaps years. I hope you will continue to visit this blog, as I will continue writing reflections as I reenter life in Miami and in my work as local church Pastor. I firmly believe that Sabbath Tango is not just a theme for my Sabbatical, but for my life and work and I will try to explore that theme in the days to come.

Eating Our Way Through Lima

Lima has turned out to be a very nice, very relaxing, very enjoyable final stop on our visit to South America. Dianne and I both had very low expectations of Lima based on what we had read or heard about it before we arrived, but we have been pleasantly surprised by what we have found. Perhaps it is the neighborhood where we are staying, Miraflores, which is clearly a middle to upper class neighborhood, but we have found it very clean, feeling very safe, and very attractive. There are lovely parks. There are gourmet restaurants with stunning settings. There have been neighborhood-type restaurants where we felt like we became part of the family in the time of just one meal. Plus, unlike Cusco, you can walk the streets and not be constantly accosted by street vendors and beggars. We even found a large handicraft market in Miraflores with pretty much the same crafts we saw in Cusco and we were able to shop at our leisure without too much pressure, even from the attendants of the different shops. It was much more relaxing and a much more enjoyable experience. (Plus we found some really nice bargains!)

Our time in Lima is definitely very relaxed with an emphasis on eating really good meals. Last night we ate at El Señorío de Sulco, listed as a three-fork restaurant in the Footprints Guide, yet written up as a "five-fork" restaurant, reputed to be one of the finest in Lima. We would agree. The food was delicious, truly gourmet, and the service was first-rate. Dianne had a very delicious roast duck marinated in a dark ale & corn beer sauce. Steve enjoyed a very traditional Peruvian Roast Beef dish, cooked in an interesting collection of herbs and served with sweet potatoes. We enjoyed another bottle of very fine Tacama vineyards Peruvian Tinto Wine. We had heard that Peruvian wines were not very good and while we would still rate the Argentine wines the best we have tasted in South America, the Tacama wines are very tasty and very good. We satisfied our desire for sweets with a very tasty flan with caramel & pecan topping.

Today we had a really fun lunch. We decided on a café/bar named Shehadi Pizzeria. It sounded very Middle Eastern, but the menu listed clearly Peruvian dishes. It turned out to be owned by a Lebanese-American from Brooklyn who has been in Lima for 3 years. There was a picture of the Brooklyn Bridge painted on one wall. The wait staff was extremely attentive and bent over backwards to be sure we had a good dining experience. The food was excellent. We both had dishes that were Peruvian, but with a Lebanese twist.

Finally, tonight we were able to finagle a table on the outside deck of La Rosa Nautica, a Lima dining establishment which is built on a pier sitting over the Pacific Ocean. The deck was quite comfortable and allowed us to hear the waves breaking on the beach while watching the lights of Lima blink at us from the towering cliffs overhead. La Rosa's main dining room was totally booked for the night (we did not need reservations the night before) but they had some tables available outside. The waiter here was a bit snooty, but the Sommelier was quite helpful in choosing a very nice Tacama Blanco y Blanco which was very delicious. The food, though, was wonderful. Dianne enjoyed a very tasty and smooth Fettuccine Alfredo with shrimp while Steve was delighted with the Sea Bass Rosa Nautica, baked in a delicious white sauce with shrimp and sea scallops and mashed yellow potatoes. We topped off the meal with an exquisite Chocolate Mousse pie with lacuma sauce, all of which was very rich and very delicious.

We have one more day in Lima, one more day in Peru, one more day in South America. Then on Saturday we board an airplane to fly home to Miami. This has been a most amazing, constantly surprising, consistently enjoyable experience for me and for Dianne. We are not ready for it to end and I know that the memories we are gathering will stay with us and unfold for us for years to come. From all the sights, all the delicious food, to all the wonderful people we have enjoyed a very rich experience. One more day to go! We don't plan to waste it.

Surprising Reactions to Lima

Gray skies that blend into a gray Pacific Ocean are the backdrop for our first day in Lima, Peru, yet our impression of Lima has raised our impression of Peru as a whole. While I still believe Peru is a country with tremendous poverty, it is clear there is money in this country from what I have already seen in Lima. Just the drive from the airport was through streets very busy with both automobile and pedestrian traffic. There was significant evidence of retail and commercial activity that looks much more like what I am used to in the United States than any other economic activity I have seen elsewhere in Peru or Argentina. Lima is clearly a city that is not dependent on tourism for the engine to drive its economic activity. It is also a city that, while still not up to US standards, is closer to those standards than even Buenos Aries, at least in terms of what I experienced.

As we drove to the little Bed & Breakfast where we are staying the next three days, we passed through the San Isidro district which is clearly a middle to upper class neighborhood, where there are many embassy compounds and clearly up-scale living accommodations. Our lodging is just two blocks from the road that run along the bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean. After checking in we went out to get some lunch and walked along the bluff. There is a beautiful park complex, filled with walkways, play areas for children, beautiful flower beds all in bloom (after all, it is springtime here in Peru) and stunning views of the Pacific. Even with the horizon blending one level of grey from the water into another level of grey from the clouds in the sky, the waves breaking on the beach below were still impressive. Along the walk there were small well-kept homes squeezed between high-rise apartment buildings, with even higher-rise buildings popping up here and there. It is clear this is where some of the money in Peru lives.

This was further confirmed for us when we entered Francesco's restaurant for lunch. Escorted to the second floor, we were clearly under-dressed for the clearly businessman's lunch site. Sitting in our blue jeans and long-sleeve t-shirts, the waiter, sommelier, bus-boys, servers, everyone associated the restaurant, were nonetheless very helpful and very pleasant. Not wanting to over-eat so we could enjoy a very nice dinner later, we did "tapas", choosing from the appetizers and enjoyed more than enough for lunch. Dianne began with a traditional Peruvian Pisco sour and I had, on the recommendation of our Taxi driver that it would be could for clearing up my cough, a Pisco Puro (a shot of straight pisco). We followed with a shared Crab Meat Tamal and then Dianne enjoyed a Pepper stuffed with shrimp and melted mozzarella cheese while Steve enjoyed a baked potato stuffed with seafood (octopus, shrimp, scallops, and crab). The setting was first class, the service superb, and the food exquisite. An outstanding lunch. A great way to begin our stay in Lima.

While we have not ventured too far, our impression of Peru has improved dramatically already with our exposure to the San Isidro and Miraflores neighborhoods of Lima. We are both feeling better than the past few days, possibly due to our return to sea level from the heights of Cusco in the high Andes. It is another amazing aspect of this sabbatical for me that I began my time in South America on the Atlantic Coast in Buenos Aries in August and I am ending my visit on the Pacific Coast in Lima in October. And I did not have to fly as far to do so as I would have had to in the US. And in just three days I will be back on the Atlantic as I return to Miami. What an amazing adventure this continues to be.

Here is a link to a Kodak Gallery Album with a few pictures of the Pacific Ocean coast near our Bed and Breakfast here in Lima: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=6d2p4u6.bxf8wjty&x=0&y=3aijbm&localeid=en_US

Futbol in Argentina!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAALLL!!!!!! FUTBOL!!! GO BOCA!!!! I went to La Bombonera and watched the famous Boca Juniors team play Gimnasia (a lousy team.) But it was BOCA! In their home stadium! In Argentina that is the equivalent of watching the New York Yankees play in Yankee Stadium - it doesn't get any better than that in terms of tradition, rowdy fans, and continued attitude of superiority to anyone else. Boca is the team where Argentine soccer great and national treasure Diego Maradona got his start. They are his home team. The quality of play by Boca was definitely superior to Gimnasia. They beat them 4-0. I got to see Boca's current star, Martin Palermo and one of the good defenders, Hugo Ibarra (for all you futbol fans). La Bombonera is a great little intimate stadium seating 65,000 fans (although for this game it was not full, even though we had been told it was sold out.) But the fans did rock and roll the stadium. They chanted and sang almost the whole game and they really made the stadium shake (literally shake) when Boca went on their goal scoring spree in the second half. It was truly an exciting experience.

One other plus was I got to see the ocean! We sat near the top of the stadium and could see the port cranes above the city and beyond that the ocean and ocean horizon. It actually made my heart warm. I had not seen the ocean for over 10 days (since leaving Miami) and I had not realized until that moment how much I have become a beach bum. Evidently 23 years in Florida has done that. I never expected that growing up in St. Louis and I can remember sitting on the South Carolina beach watching the waves when I was in Seminary and thinking to myself this was really nice, but I really preferred the mountains for beauty and inspiration. The mountains as still nice, but obviously I have too much sand between my toes and I have to smell and feel the salt air and see the sun reflecting off the turquoise water to really have my soul nourished. On one of the sunny days this week (I hope we have some) I have to go down to the Port and get a closer view of the water.