Pace

Summer is definitely upon us. Carman wrote yesterday about our need for consistent rest. I have mentioned how our summers seem to have changed, to be somehow more full and hectic than I remember. It always seems we need to squeeze just so much into a limited number of warm summer days, weekends, weeks.

In many ways church activities do tend to slow down a bit as congregations shift to a different schedule, some even taking some time off to allow folks to vacation, go to reunions and camps or just step away from congregational responsibilities for a bit. Maybe some will even take a real vacation. But even there, somebody must do the laundry, the packing, the route planning, ticket buying, newspaper stopping, dog boarding, plant watering, lawn mowing...all the things that need looking after before and during an absense from home. Who hasn't said "I need to take another vacation to rest up from my holiday!"?

I'm off to Ziontario next week for Loaves and Fishes. It will be great to spend some time with family--while Art is quite present on facebook, I only get to give Eric and Tiona real hugs in person--so it will be special. I look forward to spending time with people I may not have seen in months with a little bit of slower time for chats under the trees or around a fire. But sometime between now and then I have a couple of sermons to complete and a few other items of business that just won't quit.

So this post is really just reminding us all to Pace Ourselves as we enter the summer season. Make sure to take that necessary rest time, to enjoy the people we don't see so often, to slow down and relax standards where we can, to ensure we set our priorities well. None of us, I venture, will do ALL we want to in the coming summer weeks. But we'll also likely do wonderful things we hadn't even thought to plan for. I think those latter wonderful things are most likely if we are careful with our pace of life and living.

Have a good summer everyone!

Posted by Marion