Sabbatical Blog

...chronicling some of my projects and learnings during this time apart from parish ministry

Tuesday, March 21, 2006

Quiet Day

Yesterday I went to the first Clergy Quiet Day at the Norbertine Center, and it was a great blessing. In our opening songs, we were singing about "Fill Me Up, Lord,", and I was thinking, "Empty me Out, Lord!" A poem was shared that spoke to me:

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can squelch a fire.
Can douse the flames
almsot as surely
as a pail of water can. ("Fire" by Judy Brown)

All so true. And while at home there is dinner to start and a load of laundry to put in and fruit trees to prune, in this quiet space there is not much to do except watch the clouds and stare at the tree outside my window. Which is what I did for hours on end, and it was very good.