This is hard!

Sorry I've been away for so long. I promise I will still blog about my learnings from the sabbatical. It just takes a while to process so much information.

In the meantime, I've been back to work for a little more than a week now. I'm not sleeping as soundly. My breathing is punctuated by heavy sighs. I'm seeking out calming music in my iTunes. Tonight I bought a bottle of Arizona RxStress tea. This is not an easy transition. I am trying hard to use some of the tools and skills I learned at Iona - exercises with a labyrinth, praying while holding prayer ropes or stones (I have a stone from the beach at St. Columba's Bay on Iona, one from our renewal of the baptismal covenant in Israel, and one that a friend gave me that says "Hope" that I use in rotation, depending on my mood.). I am trying to remember that it is not my church but Jesus' church, and so to listen to him on what to do, instead of fretting and sweating and stewing about it myself. I've been down that road, and I know where it leads.

So I can say it is good to be back among the people of CPC, but I am not quite ready to say it's good to be back. In fact, it's really hard. But I'm taking my friend Kenneth's advice that someone gave him when he returned from his sabbatical: Take it easy at first, and promise not to quit for the first thirty days.

Prayers are always welcome.

Sabbatical 2010: Trip to Staffa Isle

Not everything about a week at Iona has spiritual significance, at least not obviously. So a trip to the bizarre and beautiful island of Staffa is just a cool thing to do. Then again, it's hard to separate the sacred-spiritual out of anything when you are at Iona, and Staffa itself makes you wonder, "How did God manage to get it to look like this?" See what you think -- click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Iona, Scotland

The sacred Isle of Iona is considered to be a "thin place," a boundary between two realms (like earth, water, sky, deeps, etc.) where the veil between the physical and spiritual realms is thin enough to give a glimpse from one to the other. There has been a Christian witness at Iona since St. Columba arrived in the 6th c. I arrived on 25 September 2010. The pic above will let you glimpse my album. Just click to punch through the veil.

Sabbatical 2010: Oban and Mull - on the Iona trail

Getting to Iona is no small task. From Glasgow it takes a 3-hour train or bus ride (I took the train) to Oban, a 45-minute ferry ride to Craignure on the Isle of Mull, a 45-minute bus ride across Mull, and another ferry ride to Iona. It's almost an all-day journey, even if you don't miss the ferry in Oban. Your journey to see my pictures of will be much easier. Just click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Glasgow, Scotland, Coming and Going

Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, was the home of such luminaries as Walter Scott, Robert Burns, Dr. David Livingstone, and Craig Ferguson. The first three have statues. Craig may have to wait. Any way, to see some of the wonders of this grand old city, click the pic.

Sabbatical 2010: Alloa, Scotland

This set is from Alloa (pronounced AL'-lo-wa), apparently the home of some ancestors 400 years ago. Somehow I thought it would still be a medieval village. Click the pic to see how that turned out.

Sabbatical 2010: Edinburgh, Scotland

I'd love to come up with something witty about the Edinburgh album, but I was really moved being in that ancient city and particularly in St. Giles High Kirk. Molly took some really beautiful pictures in there. So, nothing clever on this one. Just click the pic to see.