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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