3-2-1: Sabbatical, Recommendations, and Kindness
Today, our hodgepodge edition: three tidbits, two quotes, and a question. Let's go:
Three Tidbits
1.
I’m taking a sabbatical this summer! It will be my first in nineteen years (!) of ministry. I’m excited and grateful and curious what it will be like to step away from everything. I only have one thing on the calendar, but it’s a big one: Robert and I will be headed to Scotland in June, where we will walk the John Muir Way. It’s 134 miles from Helensburgh to Dunbar, going through Edinburgh. It should take us about 10 days, and we’ll be staying in inns and B&Bs along the way. We can’t wait. Other than that, and maybe some small excursions with each of my kids, it will be a time of rest, reflection, and recreation.
One of the things I’ve wrestled with is what to do about The Blue Room while I’m gone. I’m going to give myself some breathing space and step away from the weekly routine, but I don’t want to completely let go of the practice of writing and sharing. I value this little community and our back and forth. So, I’ve decided to move to a monthly schedule for the summer, with maybe a guest writer here and there.
I’m also tending to the need for transition time. I’ve often heard from people who take a sabbatical that it takes a few weeks to get into a rhythm. But the transition time before the sabbatical matters too--it's a busy time, but I'm trying to wind down a few things gradually, rather than barrel along until a sudden and abrupt end. To that end, I’ll be moving to a biweekly schedule from now until sabbatical begins in early June.
2.
Recent recommendations:
Movie: Everything Everywhere All At Once–a truly bonkers film with a sweet core.
TV show: Moon Knight–one of my favorite things Marvel has done.
Books: The Body Is Not an Apology: The Power of Radical Self-Love by Sonya Renee Taylor--kindness is everything, particularly self-kindness.
3.
On that note: recent kindness graffiti from here in Reston:
That’s “what survives of us is love.”
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Two Quotes
1.
I see mystery not as something you cannot understand; rather, it is something that you can endlessly understand. There is no point at which you can say, “I’ve got it.” Always and forever, mystery gets you.
-Richard Rohr
2.
The men looked at each other with wide-eyed wonder and said, “It felt like our hearts were on fire when he was talking with us on the road, showing us the meaning of the Sacred Teachings!” They got up without finishing their meal and walked back to Village of Peace as fast as they could, for the sun was setting. They found where the eleven had gathered together with the others. They were saying, “Our Wisdom-keeper is alive! He has shown himself to One Who Hears.” So the two men told them what happened on the road and how their eyes were opened when Creator Sets Free broke the frybread into pieces.
-Luke 24:32-35, from the absolutely gorgeous First Nations Version: An Indigenous Translation of the New Testament
(The first quote is on the front cover of the worship bulletin for this Sunday’s church service, where I’ll be preaching on the Road to Emmaus story in Luke 24. You can watch on Sunday at 11 EDT here.)
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One Question
What do you know for sure? What remains a mystery to you?
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What I’m Up To
Two more Hope Notes conversations until sabbatical: CODA (featuring guest Shani McIlwain), and Turning Red (featuring guest Larissa Kwong Abazia). Register!
The latest Blue Room podcast episode is slightly delayed. Subscribe so you get it right into your podcast feed! This week’s episode is in honor of Earth Day: an excerpt from last year’s Hope Notes conversation about Wall-E with my friend Sarah Scherschligt.
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Link Love
Michael Moore on outsmarting the funk.