Now is the Time

The first reading today said there is a season--a time--for everything. Now is the time to add something to my blog.

I apologize that it has been so long. I ended up traveling first to St. Louis for what was going to be a weekend visit and then to San Antonio for Kate's sister's funeral. As you might imagine, the reading from this morning was very pertinent in all kinds of ways.

My heart has been emotionally taxed (not to mention my rear end with so much driving). I remember a prayer night in college on compassion and feeling that I really couldn't at that time be with people in their suffering and joys; I was hardly able to acknowledge my own. Last week I was exhausted with all of the suffering and pain of people I know and love. I teased with Pat as we traveled back from Texas that the darn novitiate thing of the past two years continues to stretch me and make me think in all kinds of ways. I would never have guessed the thinking and analysis that would have come with attending a funeral: the power of presence, the gift of community, the difference between community and family, the implications of the experience for ministry, how I was attentive to others' needs, what actions were because of my own needs, etc., etc. It's probably a good thing there were lots of car hours for processing.

Tonight doesn't feel like a Friday night. Probably because I only had two days of school this week. Kate and I are both home for the first time in a long time. We had a simple supper, long prayer together, and will both meet, I'm sure, dressed in our "softs" for the presidential debate in a half an hour or so. At one point I thought about driving to Oxford to be on the lawn tonight for the debate, but that was before all of the happenings of the last two weeks. Right now I am grateful to be watching from my living room from whence I can crawl into bed whenever the desire overwhelms me. Off to a cross country meet and spiritual direction tomorrow. Let the routine of home commence.

--Sarah