It's time

I woke this morning with the sweet anticipation of travel. As always, there is at least a million things to do before we leave. We used to say that catastrophes came in groups of threes but we now say in it comes in groups of tens so when only seven things break down, we are pleasantly surprised. I got up at 2:00 a.m. waiting for the 4:00 alarm to go off. I ran and prayed my usual route and then sat in the Jacuzzi to plan the day and make sure we were ready for our trip. The details came flooding through my mind and I hoped I would remember them all when I entered the house. In the last few moments before I came in I begin to reflect on our last sabbatical. The thought that lingered in my mind the longest was the enjoyment of our time. And, I just don’t mean our time together although that was fantastic. I mean time. Time to breath, time to think, time to just be.

My father sent me a compass a few months ago after he had read our account of getting lost last year while enroute to Jordan. One wrong turn at the southern tip of Israel and you end up in Egypt instead of Jordan. Along with it came instructions for its’ use. We packed it this time because my sense of direction isn’t the greatest although I always make it to where I am going and back home again. Tom did celestial navigation for the US Navy for years and he can always tell where we are and which direction we are heading. He humored me in bring it along.

I am not worried about getting lost in some foreign country. In fact, I rather like the adventure. I worry more about getting lost in busyness. I re-read the last entries of our travel log from last year and all the valuable things we had learned about ourselves and our time together. Of relationships, of being purposeful in the everyday life, of slowing the pace down so as to not feel rushed with every event and this is where I feel I’ve gotten a little lost. Always fine and

noble things I am doing but I find I am longing to drink coffee from a real cup (while sitting down), not always running off a ‘to-do’ list, conversations that stimulate thought, pouring into valued relationships, reading for the pure pleasure of it, and just plain daydreaming are what I truly desire.

And so, as I hold this compass I know I need to keep it balanced and steady for true value, and that if I monitor my direction on a regular basis the corrections will be smaller to keep me on course. Sometimes things will come up and I will need to change my course for a while. I hope not to forget that these changes can give me a different perspective of the journey and can also have value. I pray to remember that these nativagational concepts not only apply to my sabbatical time but also to the way we live life in general.

We are at Travis AFB as we speak. Our flight to New York has been delayed so we are on the waiting list for Dover, Delaware tomorrow. This part of our travel always reminds us to be flexible and that we are not always the directors of our destiny. We keep steady in the direction we want to go; we adjust our direction and change our course as needed, and when the course changes

we find joy and pleasure in the change. As always, we are reminded that the life God gives us is a beautiful journey and we just need to enjoy it!