This is the last Friday of my vacation… I have been off since July 15th. It’s the longest stretch of time off I have had in a couple of years and I am reminded once again of how expansive this length of time is and how deeply appreciative of a denomination that mandates a month of vacation for their clergy and a pastoral charge that is supportive. We don’t have to take it all at once, but I often have.

We haven’t done much this past month… my husband took almost a month to rebuild the deck out back… I have been gardening, although there is still half of one bed to finish. I ran out of mulch a couple of weeks ago… we went and got some more, but somehow it is still sitting there in a pile on the side of the driveway.

I made a list of things around the house I wanted to get done, but not been a slave to it. I have read… walked… swam at a friend’s pool…played Scrabble… had my youngest granddaughter for a couple of days… had brunch with my older granddaughter… had friends in for dinner… sat on the deck with a glass of wine… wandered some of the beautiful city we live on the outskirts of… had an amazing dinner at Taproot Farms, gone to a concert of Leonard Cohen’s music… explored the gardens of Grand Pré … we are hosting a family BBQ tonight… participating in a mosaic workshop tomorrow… and looking forward to having friends from my first congregation visit next week. When you put it all together like that, it looks busy… but it has been at our own pace.

I am ready to get back to my pastoral charge… eager to begin solidifying plans for the fall… to reconnect with folks I haven’t seen for a while… and yet, at the same time, I am reluctant to have this unscheduled time come to an end…

Apple Slab Pie for BBQ!