Nine weeks down, three to go

Three months.

Three months seems like a big chunk of time when you first think about it. Ask Lindsay Lohan - last week she got sentenced to three months in jail and cried like a baby at the hearing.  When your favorite band says their new album is coming out in three months, or your favorite show takes a three-month hiatus, it feels like an eternity.  As a kid summer break is a much-enjoyed three-month break from school, lived to the fullest.  Just ask my boys.

Three months seemed like a long time when I walked out of the church office on the last Thursday of May this year, knowing that I would not set foot back in there until my sabbatical was complete on the second Monday of August.  It felt strange to say the least.  I had left before on week-long vacations; been absent for two-week doctoral study sessions.  So three months, I figured, was going to seem like forever.

Let me tell you something: three months flies by.

And in no way am I complaining.  I've had an opportunity that most grown adults can only dream of; I realize that.  I'm thankful for every minute of it.  But it is seriously hard to believe that I have just a few more weeks before I walk back through those church doors again.

I've done a lot for the past nine weeks.  I started off the whole excursion by taking a family trip to Disney World, where we soaked in everything Mickey.  I've spent a week in Austin, TX; I've led music for two Massanetta Springs Middle School youth conferences and released my first CD in eleven years.  I did a lot of stuff at the boys' school like helping with their field day and playing some music at their end-of-year assembly.  I've written some songs, listened to a lot of songs, played some songs too.  So by no means have I been sitting still.

And perhaps that's why it's all flown by so fast.

So I'm changing course a bit these last few weeks - I'm not doing much.  I'm not going on any big trips (save some family time at the beach).  I'm hanging out at home, spending some time at the music space downtown.  I'm going to the pool a lot with the family - making me one of the very few Dads there, which I'm okay with.  I'm taking Elder to swim team practices in the afternoon and watching him at swim meets with a lot of fatherly pride.

And I imagine when August 2 rolls around three weeks from today and I find myself sitting back in my office at 326 South Main Street, I'll be ready for it.  We humans are creatures of habit and we cling to our routines by our very nature.  We also can become enslaved to them, which is why these three months have been such a blessing.  But we are still inevitably drawn back to them because they define a large part of who we are.

I have missed my church family, I will admit.  Hanging out around town means I've still bumped into folks here and there - at the pool, in the grocery store.  And there's always Facebook. But it's not the "family" that assembles together every Sunday morning in a sacred space.  I have missed that gathering and look forward to being reunited with them when the time comes (I just hope I remember how to write a sermon).

But until then, I'll make the most of these last few weeks.  And not by doing too much or doing too little.  In fact, I'm going to try and make the most of it not by "doing" at all.  I'm going to focus on just "being" for a change.  Maybe then it won't seem to go too fast or too slow.  It'll be just right.