Lent is my favourite season in the Church. Holy Week is a marathon of services, in my case 10 services in 8 days. By the end of the week I’m astonished, exhausted, relieved, overwhelmed and just about any other emotion you can imagine. In short, I am absolutely spent.
Usually I don’t take too much time off after Easter because there’s always the next thing to do; Bible Study, homiletic preparation, study, liturgical preparation. This year I decided to take 4 days off after Easter, but not all together. And that was intentional.
Yesterday I took my first day trip south of the border since I moved to the small town in BC where I now reside. It was wonderful. Thankfully I had a tour guide who drove so I could oohh and aahh as we drove along. Every now and then one of us would see something, and exclaim “LOOK”. Then we’d stop the car, get out and look.
If I had to recreate the trip I likely could, with some consultation from the driver. It was, all in all, a perfect day off. I didn’t talk about work. I didn’t think about work. I simply was. We gazed at vistas, mountains, trees, lakes, rocks, plains. And marveled in the glory of God.
We talked as we traveled…okay I did most of the talking…and also enjoyed listening to music and traveling in silence.
Today I had great plans of things I was going to get done around the house…dusting, laundry, washing the floor…and I’ve decided instead to relax. The housework will wait. My dining room table needs cleaning off and the table cloth needs laundering, but it doesn’t need to happen today.
Today is about self-care. It’s about resting. Refreshing. Relaxing. Tomorrow I’m back at it, happily and Thursday I have Easter home communions, which I enjoy. Then Friday and Saturday I’m off. This time brings out my itchy feet…my wanderlust. And while part of me would love to get in the car and go, my body is telling me to slow down and rest.
And *gasp*, I’m listening.
So I’ve made myself a cup of tea and will head over to the post office later and maybe pick up some bagels, but otherwise, I’m a home body today.
And that’s just grand!
Barefoot Bellringing 
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