Seventh Inning Stretch

In just a few days I will begin my sabbatical leave, a period in which I will set aside pastoral duties and daily routines to travel, work in a monastery, play golf, fish rivers hoping to catch and then release the big one, hike, read, write, and visit with friends I have not seen in many years. 

I will light candles in cathedrals, walk dirt paths through parks and gardens, absorb the fragrances of a thousand flowers, taste wines perfectly paired with colorful foods, sit in the shade of hundred year old trees, listen to fast moving water, and watch the sun set as great cities begin to glow.

   

I will carry luggage, guide books, sport equipment, camera, pen and journal, curiosity, openness to new experiences, and the book I have found to be increasingly helpful to my spirituality, “Always we Begin Again.”

Some of my friends refer to this time away as a vacation.  But for me sabbatical time feels more like the seventh inning stretch.  

My work as a public servant is not nearly over. But this brief pause in a life time of ministry will bring me back to the playing field invigorated and ready for a few more innings, maybe, as sometimes happens, even extra innings.  

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Time to Journal

I began my sabbatical journal a little over a week ago, on Palm Sunday.  I write for a few minutes each day describing meals, activities, encounters, thoughts, feelings and observations.  I've already noticed that in anticipation of the writing that I will do each evening I am a little more attentive to things and people I experience during the day.  

I last kept a daily journal in 2002.  In January and February of that year I was privileged to serve as a chaplain at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City.  A few days before my departure for SLC I decided to keep a journal. During my five week stay I wrote in the journal every day for at least a half hour.  I described the food I ate and the people who joined me, worship activities at the chapel, conversations with other volunteers, the pins I purchased and exchanged with those attending the games, reflections on news articles and media coverage, the quick wave from President Bush as his motorcade made its way towards the Olympic Village to greet USA athletes, the arrival of the flag that once flew above the World Trade Center prior to the tragic events of September 11th, snow shoeing with friends in a valley prone to avalanche, walking the streets of Park City with my brother who worked security during the games.

When the games ended I decided to wait one year before again reading the journal entries.  And that's what I did.  I didn't read the journal again until April of 2003.  

I was amazed.  As I turned the pages and read the entries of a year earlier it seemed impossible that I had already forgotten some of the activities and conversations about which I had written.  And many of my journal entries didn't match my memory of them. I was amazed and a bit disturbed.

I was also enlightened.  Contrary to the claim, "I have a great memory for details," I do not, at least not over the long haul.   

So, amazed and enlightened and a bit disturbed, I began my sabbatical journal a little over a week ago.  I hope my commitment to write each day for the next three months will make me more attentive to things and people during the day. I also hope that fifteen months from now the journal will help me appreciate the things and people of my sabbatical as they once were rather than the way my distorted memory might want them to be. 

Your memory might be better than mine when it comes to important experiences in the months and years prior.  But, if not, why not join me in keeping a journal for the next three months.  Then we can talk about both our experiences as written and our remembrances of them. Somewhere in between the text and the talk we will discover what is real and what is true.  

Better vision

I have trouble with my vision.  I don’t see as well as I once did and certainly not as well as I’d like.  So, in the hope that (at worst) I can maintain what I have and (at best) make some improvement I make frequent visits to an eye specialist, an ophthalmologist.  

I read lines of letters projected on charts. I stare at a yellow lit bulb while recording random blips of light generated by a sophisticated computer. I open my eyes as wide as I can for pictures and pressure tests.  My eyes burn briefly as the tech drops solution into each eye.  While waiting for the arrival of the doc I read tracts about conditions and diseases of the eye.  Then after hearing three gentle knocks on the door, my doc enters the room.  After a brief greeting and some small talk he sits at his computer reviewing the data.  Using a prism and a blue light he checks each eye.  He smiles.  “You are doing well.  Keep doing what you are doing. See you in six months.”  He renews a prescription, gives me a thumbs up and is gone.   I stop by the front desk to cover my co-pay.  I put on dark glasses and with eyes still dilated, stagger to my car under a sun that appears much brighter than when I arrived an hour earlier.  I complete the new prescription with my provider and continue to do what the doctor says to do.

Frequent visits with Dr. D. and his staff help me maintain healthy eyes and good vision. 

Spiritual health requires attention as well and a qualified specialist.

The consultant?  Jesus.  The tools?  Conversation with faithful friends, prayer, silence, walks while naming things for which and people for whom I am grateful, and time spent with Jesus’ parables of the Kingdom.  Each practice helps me “see” the creation and its creatures a little more like Jesus might see them.  They bring into focus those places where I can work for justice and do acts of kindness in a spirit of humility.

In addition to these tools I have collected one more for use in the months ahead. It’s really a list of words, words to help me notice people and things that I would otherwise overlook.   You might find the list helpful as well as you work at sharpening your spiritual acuity.   

Topic	Date	Reflection
conversations
insights
jokes
photos
disturbing
tastes
surprises
sights
experiences
sounds
spiritual moments
smells
thought provoking
stories
places
meals
observations
prayers
people
music
questions
dreams
walks/hikes

When I return from sabbatical we can compare lists and share our discoveries.  What did you see? What did you notice?  What captured your heart?  To what did you attend?