Hello, Friends!

       As I’ve mentioned in times past, I think it’s good for us human creatures of habit to travel to new places, even if for a brief span, so as literally to expand our horizons of perspective and understanding.

        So I’m especially grateful, today, to have been blessed with the opportunity to travel to northern California with my mate and our good friends.   We spent a few days at a retreat center perched on a cliff overlooking the Pacific, a lovely, lovingly tended place where Nature and human nurture combine in splendid ways, filling the senses with so much beauty one can scarcely take everything in.

     I spent early morning time in solitude, my favorite spot being a large flat rock next to a waterfall, where the spring water rushed down to meet the ocean’s tides.   The sounds of both water bodies echoed in a powerful, enveloping symphony against ancient rocks long shaped by their momentum. 

      For the eyes there were beauties great and small,  immediate and vastly unreachable.   I could gaze up and see sunlight touching mountains and washing massive treetops, or out to the endless ocean, or down the coastline to watch the waves’ insistent pounding on rock sculptures of Nature’s ongoing design.

     Up close there were flowers and
 succulents and vines unfamiliar to my
 southern eye, some growing right out of the
 rock, others blanketing the ground and
 embracing their neighbors.

       Cobalt blue Western Jays were
 everywhere, their screechy hellos a bit milder
 but no less insistent than their Texas
 cousins.   And from time to time the last few
stragglers of migrating monarchs would
 dance by, reminding me of how fragile
 and yet how wise and determined the
 life force can be.

        I could go on, and I probably will,
from time to time, because I’m feeling
so enriched, so utterly blessed by the
whole experience, both times spent alone
and with others, surrounded by and filled
up with the Creator’s brilliance and wisdom.

       I love my life here with you, and I love
My life with my family and other friends—
so I wasn’t hesitant at all to leave, and
return to the dailiness of things.  But
having this bit of time in a new place,
with time simply to be, and take in,
and breathe, and walk about with no
other aim than to experience the moment
was a real gift, for which I’m most
grateful.   I awoke this morning with a
refreshed attuning to our local beauties,
the new growth in John’s garden, the
eager approach of our feline
and canine friends, the sounds of kids
 playing next door, the smiles on church
 friends’ faces as I arrived to find our new
organ being delivered.

       I think I’m fairly awake every day, and
 Pretty centered in gratitude most days.
And thanks to a few days in a beautiful
new place,  I’m a bit more fully aware
of how very blessed I am to be, and to
be here, in service to the living Christ
alongside you good people.

        I’ll try not to bore you with details
of my trip, and I promise, no slide shows
of my vacation— though photo man John
does have some splendid pics
he’d be glad to share!

         But I will pass along what might
Be useful to all of us, as we scurry
About trying to be and do good—
and that is, sometimes simply being,
and being tuned in to the beauties available
through our senses, is enough.

         I look forward to being with you this Sunday, and all our days to come.

Shalom,    

Sarah