SJT June: Summering

Ramona is our host this month for Spiritual Journey Thursday. Her prompt for us is as follows:

 

"Since retirement, summer no longer has the delicious allure of a respite from the hectic days of teaching. My move to NC has put me in the thick of summer humidity and mosquitoes after 26 Seattle summers. (Can you tell that I'm finding it hard to embrace summer in my new state?) This theme is an invitation to each of you to help me find "summer love". Do you have particular spiritual rhythms for summering? Is there a book out there like Katherine May's Wintering for summer?"

 

 

I didn't post yesterday, on the actual Spiritual Journey Thursday, because it was our last day of school. It was a half day with kids, followed by a teacher lunch that went on well into the afternoon. Graduation is tomorrow, so our school year isn't fully over, but we're definitely almost there. 

 

Ramona asked us about spiritual rhythms for summering. Unlike her, I am still teaching, so summer is a blessed break. The rhythms slow down, and there's some much-needed rest. This summer will contain some travel, some professional development (I'm doing an online AP teaching course), some time with family and friends, and more reading than usual. (I just heard that Walter Brueggemann died yesterday. I've read his Collected Sermons, but I also have his book The Prophetic Imagination on my Kindle, and I haven't read it yet, so that's going on my list for the summer.) Notice I didn't even mention writing; I do so little of that these days. But I'm hosting Poetry Friday next week, so we'll see how that goes.

 

My focus lately has been trying to take things as they come, not worrying about the future but living in today. World events make that challenging, as they always do. But here's something from Walter Brueggemann:

 

"There is something hidden, inscrutable, playful, and unresolved about our human lives that warns us not to be too sure. Such a claim is odd and uncomfortable for us, because it robs us of deep certainty and ultimate control. We may say even more. That hidden inscrutable, playful dimension of our life is an arena in which the purposes of God may be at work among us in ways we do not even recognize. This hiddenness must be honored and taken seriously, because it is a way in which God does for us more than we can do for ourselves. The big word for this hidden power of God is providence. It means that God sees before (pro-video), that God knows well ahead of us and takes the lead in our lives. This is not the same as being 'fated,' or having our lives settled in the stars. It is rather a claim that God is a real power in our lives, and is not simply a shadow or mirror of our own good intentions. God takes initiatives for our lives which may run counter to our own best intentions. Faithful people pay attention to this hiddenness, and are willingly led by it." Walter Brueggemann, from The Collected Sermons of Walter Brueggemann.

 

Check out what everyone else wrote on this topic here.