Sabbatical Blog

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

Friday, July 07, 2006

It's Not Over 'till the Fat Lady Preaches

This Blog is Over! The Sabbatical is Over! But people keep reading it. Amazing. So, since sabbatical isn't really over until I've managed to write a sermon, and writing this blog entry postpones that task for a few more minutes, I guess...sabbatical isn't over yet.

I was glad to be amongst my people last Sunday, not too unhappy to go to meetings all week, I realized how much I had missed the church staff and how good it was to have a structure of "going to work," and while I managed all my deadlines for orders of service, newsletters, and web page work all week long with no appreciable resistance, I can't seem to get started on this sermon.

There's our new iguana to play with. (yep, IxChel, of beloved memory, has a successor these days, a little fellow we're calling Ninja until he settles down. He needs a good deal of attention and taming, so he's sitting in my study window at the moment, trying to decide if the pigeons outside pose a threat. He doesn't quite "get" glass, yet.) There's a few household tasks. There are several details of the sermon which don't really need to be researched, but, well, anything to put off the actual writing.


But I will start on the sermon, it will be preached on Sunday, and sabbatical really will be over then, so...better subscribe to iMinister

Saturday, July 01, 2006

Sabbatical's End

122 days, 86 posts, 2,229 "hits," 9 readers, and it's all over. It's back to work tomorrow. This sabbatical has been a wonderful time to explore the internet. Blogs, MP3 players, Website design, Multi Site churches, Amazon Associates, Trauma ministry, GA, retreat' it's been quite a sabbatical. And on top of that, my "non-job" ministry to ministers took me to two retreats, several group meetings, and gave me a task for GA 's Ministry Days. Family and Friends got a little more of me than they might have otherwise, including the arranging of two huge parties (what was I thinking!....but they were both great) to honor my Dad's 80th birthday and a favorite teacher's retirement. And I was so grateful to have been around to be completely a part of our family's grieving for our dying iguana, and glad to have been able to easily take a day (yesterday!) to drive to Las Cruces and pick up a little iguana who was found in a tree by the dog catcher. He's too skittish to come out for photos yet, but he's a cute little fellow and we have high hopes for him.

So the sabbatical was not exactly lazy days, and in spite of that, it's over. I return to work eager to get going on some of the projects I've been thinking about, to see the people I missed, and to get some structure back into my life again. I am grateful for this time. It so enriches my ministry and my life.

This is the last post of this blog, so if you want to keep up with my doings, click here to go to iMinister.