That We All May Be One

This evening Susanne and I will board a one-way flight to spend a couple of weeks in our little condo in Daytona Beach. A one-way ticket, not because we are leaving Iowa and moving to Florida full time, but because we will drive my Dad’s car back to Iowa at the end of our time there. He has decided that, at 96, he is unlikely ever to drive again (!) and, because his granddaughter Amanda totaled her car in an unfortunate run-in with a deer, he is giving her his relatively new Chevy.

The little place we have overlooks the Halifax River (which is what the Inland Waterway is called in Daytona) and we were so pleased that Amanda, her daughter Courtney and her boyfriend Ryan were able to spend a long weekend there just recently. It had always been my hope to have a permanent place in our “home state” of Florida that the kids and grandkids could use for vacations and where Susanne and I could perhaps get out of the worst of the Iowa winters. Now, circumstances have allowed us to do this while still keeping our primary residence in Iowa City, a wonderful university town in a state we now both call home.

Being still fairly new in this time of life called “retirement,” I am still trying to figure out what a “vacation” is when basically our whole life is a vacation now! Well, not really. Susanne is heavily involved in some ministries and activities here in Iowa and I do some supply work and consulting both for the Diocese of Iowa and the Diocese of Chicago when asked. But clearly, out time is more our own these days and we are free from the multi-tasking and busy-ness which consumed so many of our years in the past.

Some light has been shed on this dilemma recently by considering the word “holiday” rather than “vacation” to describe time away from work and responsibility. Vacation indicates an “empty” time; while a holiday suggest a “holy” time. Holiness bespeaks healing and wholeness and appreciation of the sacred. Long walks on the beach, watching the endless tide and waves will be coupled with seeing the sun set over the river from our balcony as the sail and power boats return from a happy day of cruising or fishing to nestle in their slips for the night.

We’re looking forward to a holy time rather than an empty time in the days ahead.

May your summer provide such experiences as well!

This entry was posted on July 17, 2017 at 3:24 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Church Life, Ecumenical, Emergent Church, Interfaith, Religion, The Episcopal Church. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.