Sabbatical

On sabbatical, I'm slowing down, getting time together with family and friends. I'm even getting time by myself to be with myself. I especially loved my time last week at the Oregon Coast. I stayed at the Sylvia Beach Hotel in Newport. (http://www.sylviabeachhotel.com/ ) I ate at Mo's everyday. (http://www.moschowder.com/ ) It's some of the best chowder in the world and its one of the best small businesses in America. Really - 2nd place in 2002!

Time to think and reflect on self and life and God. Time to enjoy a walk downtown, to sit on a bench in the sunshine, to read on the patio near the beautiful greenery at my friend's house, a walk on the beach, a sunset at the coast, my Bible, my journal and me in the quiet or some beautiful Jim Brickman playing in my headphones. (http://www.jimbrickman.com/ )Ahh, Life is good.

Being is just as important as doing. We give to much emphasis on Doing here in America. Some other countries I admire would be Italy and Ireland or Scotland. To me, those seem like the kind of places where you don't work, work, work. Community, relationship, being with one another and being alone in the presence of self and our Creator can easily have a higher importance. I had a friend tell me about his time in Ireland. He spent six months on a project there with a computer company. When he came back, he went through culture shock or 'fellowship withdrawals.'

He said that often they would work all day and then go to someone's house and sit everywhere, the whole lot of them, even on the stairs, someone had a guitar and they would sing and talk into late in the night and then they would go home to bed. Here in America, it often seems like when people want to get together, you have to look at your calendar and plan a time, often a week or two or three in advance in order to have an evening together!