Where Did the Summer Go?
Reflections on the Shift from Summer to Fall
Happy Monday Friends!
Where did the Summer go?
This is a question that has come up again and again in conversation over this past week. Another summer has gone, and here we are settling back into the rhythms of the school year.
There is part of me that is relieved about that. I wrote at the beginning of the summer about my struggle in letting go of the rhythms of the school year and feeling like summer was a disruption and intrusion.
And truthfully, I did experience much of the summer as a disruption. There were certainly moments where I found myself thinking that the new school year couldn’t begin soon enough. But I also wrote in that piece about my intention to embrace that disruption for what it was…and I am glad that I did. This season was ever-shifting and intense, but full of joy and life:
Truly enjoying the company of my teen and young adult children
Taking advantage of opportunities for impromptu adventures: Atlanta, Charleston (sans kids!), and Florida to visit family (my first solo-driving road trip!).
Much - probably too much - good food: baked goods by my daughter, farmer’s market veggies, drinks with friends, and lots of ice cream.
Fruitful reading and study - particularly my personal study of the book of Ecclesiastes (I now see connections everywhere) and our church-wide exploration of the topic of Sabbath.
Funnily enough, I had hoped that the shifting rhythms would make more space for writing, and that was not the case. If you are a faithful follower in this space (and if you are, well thank you!), you may have noticed that my words were few and far between this summer. My inner recovering-type-A-self felt a little guilty about this - like I was somehow failing in my intention to build good writing habits. It was a relief to read this beautiful piece from Stephanie Duncan Smith in which she shared a profound truth:
What Am I Working On?
A life. Myself. The only story that is truly mine….
Take it from the writers that have come before: You have to live the life before you can write the work.
~Stephanie Duncan Smith, Slant Letter
Embracing that fullness of life…even when it does not immediately translate into words…is a vital part of the writing process. I dare say it’s an essential part of the work of teaching/preaching/pastoring as well, to extend that thought into the other aspects of my calling.
As we ease our way back into the rhythms of the school year and I make charts and checklists and wrangle some sense of order out of my calendar, this is what I hope to take with me: that sense of fullness and joy in life that undergirds everything else.
In the summer exploration of Sabbath that we undertook in the church community I serve, the idea that resonated the most with me was the idea of spaciousness. Luke 13:10-17 describes one of Jesus’ Sabbath healing miracles (as an aside, did you ever notice how many of Jesus’ healing miracles took place on the Sabbath day? I don’t think that’s coincidental…). There is a woman who was bent over double because of a disabling spirit. I pictured here someone with severe scoliosis unable to straighten up. I imagined the pressure that this must have put on all her internal organs and how this must have made it impossible for her to take a deep full breath of air. And then - at Jesus’ command - she was able to stand up straight, perhaps for the first time in her life, sensing the relief from that internal tension and letting her lungs expand fully as she inhaled. It was such a striking physical picture of the spaciousness that Jesus offers us:
Jesus, as Lord of the Sabbath…is demonstrating the true meaning of the Sabbath, which represents God’s gift of rest and restorative wholeness.1
It is this sense of spaciousness that I want to take into this new season with me: of leaving space in the calendar to continue to embrace the joy and fullness of life, even in the weeks that my to-do list is long. Of stopping to breathe deeply and give thanks to the One who gives each breath. To rest and delight and pray.
In a practical sense, I am still working out what this looks like. It is a challenge to intentionally create space in your life when you are a Clergyperson who works on Sunday but also a Mother whose family needs you on all of the other days of the week.
But I guess that’s part of the adventure of entering a new season.
Here’s to the fall and all its goodness, my friends.
Until Next Time,
May we breathe deeply and know the joy and fullness of life that comes from our Good Father.
Jen
Bits and Pieces
Reading/Writing/Listening:
I - kind of on a whim - joined a cohort reading and discussing The Great Gatsby led by Kimberly Phinney over at The Way Back to Ourselves this fall. We are two weeks in and these Thursday evening chats have already been so thought-provoking and delightful. So much of my own work involves pouring myself out: I am thankful for the opportunity to nourish and replenish my own soul this fall.
Taking Delight:
My husband and I took advantage of a completely kid-free weekend (!!) and ran off to Charleston for a night. It truly was a delight to explore a new city, meet up for dinner with friends, and remember that we can actually enjoy something together and not just co-manage our household while juggling our work and ministry responsibilities.
Thinking About:
“Of course, unlike God, we exist in time, and good things - including the good fruit of our labor - require time. We do not simply speak something into existence and POOF! it is there…While gifts might be natural to a person, character take time to develop…It’s human to want things quickly, right now. But there is no sidestepping the fact that the test of character, like the harvest of the fields, takes time.
~Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling2
NT in Color 155
Karen Swallow Prior, You Have a Calling: Finding Your Vocation in the True, Good, and Beautiful. 105-106