The last week was spent vacationing.  With many books, cross-country ski trails, and my beloved to create play and rest, I was nestled into our cabin in the north woods.

I slept.  I ate.  I read.  I prayed.  I laughed.  I stilled.

So now, finding myself south of that north woods idyll, there is soul work waiting for my attention.

Namely, how to live that sleeping eating praying laughing stillness while pastoring and being in the midst of the bustle that is city living.

I am rarely caught up to my ideas of what is possible.  I can see what ought be and know it as real in my belly and sometimes vision conviction can short-circuit serenity in ways stupendous.  I forget that unfolding takes time and patience is must and laughter necessary and God knows, I forget that this thing called the Body of Christ is not saved nor lost without the Holy’s breath infusing each stumble and soar.

I take on too much.  Maybe you know this way of being.

So this is what I hold as I reenter the non vacation life God has given me:  there are ski trails through woods always.  There is the ongoing amazing grace of my partner always.  There is a hunger for learning and stilling and being that beat through my being always.  There is midwife God, always.  There is an unfolding of the Holy going on in the community I serve and it is powerful in its always-changing-what-the-heck-just-happened ways.  It is beyond my control.

They are not just vacation treats, these knowings.   Holy gifting is a constant.  Great God of Life, grant me the serenity found in letting go.