As we started walking today I thought about all the shells and yellow arrows that mark our way. All you have to do is follow the arrows and you'll go the right way. I was miffed at first. Why can't we get such a direct path in life? I was told the Camino is a… Continue reading The Road Seen, Then Not Seen
About a year ago I saw a post about a United Methodist clergy pilgrimage to Spain to walk a portion of the Camino de Santiago. I wanted to go but there were two major obstacles: I’m not clergy. I was leaving one job without another one lined up yet and I was fairly certain I… Continue reading Why I’m Walking the Camino
For those following along, you know I love tulips. So much so, that I planted a lot of bulbs during my sabbatical in the fall of 2016. Last year very few came up and I attributed that to the strange weather we had that winter. I was outside cleaning flowerbeds in January. That is not… Continue reading Layers of Fear
I couldn’t have said this a year ago, but after paying close attention to my grief – not rushing through but really sitting with it – I’ve discovered that my capacity for joy has increased. I notice the little things. I find excitement in mundane tasks. Joy seems to be more present. Last week I… Continue reading Unlikely Companions
The younger kids in the youth group were 2 or 3 years old when I started working at North. So, most of the youth group don’t have a lot of memories of church without me somewhere in them. Don’t get me wrong – I am not under any illusion that North won’t be North without… Continue reading Teach
Since returning from my sabbatical, I’ve started sitting in the back of the sanctuary. For the 8.5 years prior to that, I sat in the middle section in the first third of the sanctuary. It feels strange sitting in a new pew, in a different part of the space. But, at the same time, it… Continue reading Sorrows
My sabbatical forced me to create some very definite boundaries between work and personal life. Because I wanted full separation between the people I work with and myself to have the most meaningful sabbatical possible, I had to put some things in place. It was mostly around social media. Everyone from the church got put… Continue reading Boundaries
Thanks to my sabbatical last fall, I have a better understanding of what rest looks like. Previously I thought it was a nap or sitting quietly or meditating. Rest can be those, but it’s also much more. For me rest is slowing down – so instead of running, I walk; instead of reading a whole… Continue reading Rest
At the start of my sabbatical last fall, we went to Boston with two of our friends. When we arrived, they pulled out a gift bag for me. I didn’t realize there was such a thing as a sabbatical present! Apparently, Meg was the only one aware of it, because aside from the gift of… Continue reading Journal
Thank you for the extra day, October. I think today is a bonus day. My sabbatical was for 3 months, 90 days. Here I am on Day 91. A quarter of a year has come and gone. The first two months flew by – November s l o w e d d o w n.… Continue reading Day 91