Hi Babies!
There are so many columns I really want to write! But that’s not going to happen for a bit because I’m in the full flush of start-up with my new congregation and starting to get involved in the community and leading a board retreat for another congregation this weekend, and then traveling to New York to give the Charge To the Minister at a colleague’s installation next weekend. And then there is some kind of Clergy Fashion Show going on at Andover-Newton that I’m participating in in a few weeks, and, you know, LIFE.
My lifestyle has changed a lot. I live really close to the beach and the ocean seems to just pull me to her every day. I have never been an outdoorsy girl — I much prefer walking in cities to walking in the woods — but I love the ocean promenade and I love the community it gathers to it. For the first time in my adult life, I can get home from work, put on my sneakers, strap the dog into his harness, start walking and encounter the whole world out there. People in my new city talk to me! These are my people! They strike up conversations. They say funny things. They ask my name. They pet my dog. They stop to visit with us. They give Max a cookie. On Saturday afternoon I went and spent two hours with Max at the park. I CAN WALK THERE. There are lots and lots of people around and no one knows or cares who I am. This is such a change from living in a parsonage in the center of a small town.
We have to give our souls time to catch up to our bodies, and that’s what my soul is doing right now.
I’m intensely focused on my new congregation, praying A LOT, and walking by the ocean.
If I haven’t said it lately, let me say it now: honeydoodles, if you do nothing else, pray. PRAY PRAY PRAY.
Don’t worry about how to pray. Don’t feel that you have to buy the best books about prayer. You don’t need them. Just pray. Put yourself in the presence of God every single second you can. Listen for the voice of God and tune out as much of the noisy nonsense as you can. Talk to God. Put all other things aside. Cut half the stuff out of your schedule you feel like you’re supposed to do and pray. Pray in between every meeting, and if necessary, between every sentence.
That’s all I have for you today. That will have to do for now, with my love.
This is what I love about my time in Hawaii and why I want to Move/retire there. Enjoy!
Sounds great! I miss being walking distance from the beach (it was only a little muddy beach, but still). We do have a little harbour close by which soothes my soul.
Every morning at 6:30 I take our two doggies for a walk. We walk over the old bridge, then we walk a couple more blocks and walk over the new bridge. We usually pause on one of the bridges and look at the river that runs beneath us. It is heavenly. As we walk I often find myself in prayer. And it makes me smile how much easier it is to think of things to pray when I’m walking in Creation, rather than being housed in a brick box. Know what I mean?
Thank you for your reflection and for the reminder to pray without ceasing.
Pax.