Blessed

This week I am attending an event billed as a clergy sabbath.   It includes a bit of education on the theme of peace and balance, an opportunity to do some renewal/wellness/wholeness things (like drum circles and massages and conversation with a spiritual advisor) and it includes a number of worship opportunities.

Not surprisingly, everyone is asking me about my upcoming sabbatical, so I've had conversations with a dozen or so people about it.  Everyone agrees it is a wonderful opportunity, a trip of a lifetime.   In our sessions I've explored how it fits into where I am now, and how the trip I am going on feeds parts of my being that might have been neglected during my first eight years as pastor.

Last night at vespers we were asked how we are blessed, how we are receiving blessing in our lives, and I was overwhelmed by the understanding of how deep how special this blessing of the sabbatical is, both as a gift from my congregation and from the Lilly Endowment.    I am glad to be fed in this way, I feel privileged and blessed to experience a kind of travel that is truly unusual and unique.   I thank God for the way it is coming together.

I find myself feeling blessing and gratitude these days more than I usually do; more fully and more deeply.  It reminds me of my first days of ministry, fresh from seminary when every task, every meeting, every service seemed a wonderful gift from God.  I am contemplating ways I can extend this wonderful experience of gratitude and blessing, even beyond contemplating my sabbatical.   Perhaps it is time to return to the Examen as a spiritual practice.

Today my greatest consolation was spending time with my favorite sister, Lisa Hamm-Greenawalt, and seeing her for a few hours before she and my brother in law, Bob head back to Mexico City.   My greatest desolation was having to do some collections associated with my small craft-based business. But even that went well.  It was a good day.  Amen.  'Nuff said.

Trying out the wardrobe

So I have narrowed down my wardrobe for the sabbatical.  I have watched all the videos about packing, about figuring out the wardrobe.   It's all laid out above.

I have a wide range of stuff to pack for!   I'm backpacking for four days, traveling around a wide variety of settings, but also going to churches, and joining friends for dinner, attending a concert at Hamburg's new Elbphilharmonie, going to a family graduation. And visiting a LOT of churches.   So my clothes need to be really flexible!   So here is what I have. They include what I will wear on the plane (with *)

Pants: 3 pair.  These are in the middle of the picture.

• 2 pr Clothing Arts Pickpocket proof travel pants.  These pants have an amazing number of hidden pockets.  In summer my stuff in my money belt gets sodden with sweat, especially when I am doing a LOT of exercise, so having these pockets within pockets within pockets is helpful.   1 pair black, 1 pair olive green*
• 1 pr convertible trekking pants in khaki.  These are the kind that zip off to be short.   People don't much wear shorts in Europe, but I'll spend lots of time in the sun, and want this option.   These also have hidden zipper pockets for my valuables.

Skirt: 1.   Long blue Travelsmith skirt.   Suitable for throwing over pants when necessary.  Nice enough for the Elbphilharmonie. It's at the bottom in the middle, not very clear.   Yes, it has a hidden pocket, but not as nice as the others, so I'll need to use a money belt with it.   

Shirts: 8 - this is where I get flexibility. 

• 3 tanks.  One light green, one solid black, one print blue/purple/black/white
• 2 short sleeve shirts.   1 olive green.   1 grey speedo oversized T with SPF protection, to be also used as a coverup, or to wear while floating on the Dead Sea, if I do that. 
• 1 mid-length sleeve, solid black, boat neck; I think I've had this close to 30 years.  From Travelsmith, and very pretty, but they don't make it any more.*
• 2 long sleeved shirt.  One a blue, white, green print gauzy shirt that pulls over my head, the other an olive green and black plaid* that I've had, again, more than 20 years. Wore it to the Grand Canyon.  Used to have SPF 50, but not sure it does any more.   Still I can pull it on over anything and my arms are covered. And it goes with practically everything else.

Misc:

• A swimsuit
• A pareo/scarf so I can cover my body after getting out of the water, and cover my head before going in a mosque.   I have two and have not decided if the one pictured is the one that is going.
• A scarf - olive green with little blue and yellow flowers. To dress an outfit up a little. I'm not taking jewelry. Also big to cover my head. 
• A tiny scarf with soaking pellets in it.  You put it in water at night and voila!   it sits around your neck all day and keeps you cool.  Mine is olive green camo print.  Another thing I've had for 20 years since hiking the Grand Canyon in 1999.
• 5 pairs sock liners
• 4 pairs hiking socks*
• 1 pair compression socks* (for flights: I'm 63 years old, and my chances of deep vein thrombosis are higher.   Yes, I exercise, yes I will walk some on the flight (though I'm in a window seat) but it just makes sense to have a pair.)   Mine are black, so I can just wear them as regular socks, too. 
• 6 pairs travel underwear (there is nothing as bad for me as underwear that is wet the morning after you rinse it out in the sink.   This stuff is dry in the morning.) 
• 2 bras (only one pictured here)
• Jammies: a pair of Lularoe leggings and oversize shirt.  In olive and blue, so I can wear it to the laundromat or swap it out with other portions of my wardrobe when I'm desperate.
• Shoes: 1 pr hiking boots*, 1 pr black Keen Whisper sandals - yup these have to be dressy enough for the Elbphilharmonie!  
• Tilly Hat to keep the sun off my face and neck, without too much sweat.  (Gift from my husband for my last birthday)

It all fits easily in my backpack, at least packed in 2 1/2 gallon ziplock bags (which I use in lieu of packing cubes) and I'm taking most of it on the road this week for the Penn Central Conference Clergy Sabbath, in the backpack, just to try it out.   I realized I don't yet have a rain jacket, which I'll also use for warmth when needed.  Still need to settle on one of those. 

This also doesn't include gear, which I've been gathering, but don't yet have all of.    

This is my wardrobe for 15 weeks of the summer.  Think I can do it?  

Final Itinerary

Pebblar itinerary

So today I talked to my brother, last week I talked to our friends in Italy, and my itinerary is finalized!   There are a few places where for a couple days exact locations are still a little fuzzy but the final itinerary is:

Israel (20 days)
      3 Nights Akko
      3 Nights Nazareth
      4 days/3 nights Jesus Trail  (Kafr Kanna, Kibbutz Lavi, Arbel)
      2 nights Tabgha/Capernaum
      3 nights Bethlehem (Jericho, Hebron)
      5 nights Jerusalem
         ending with a day trip to Nablus (ancient Samaria) with a late evening flight to Greece
Greece (9 days)
      3 nights Thessaloniki
      3 nights Athens
      Patmos (overnight ferry, day in Patmos, overnight ferry)
      1 night Corinth
Malta (1 day, 2 nights)
      2 nights Malta
Italy round 1 (8 days)
      5 nights Rome
      2 nights Assisi (or 2 more nights Rome)
      1 night Trent
Germany round 1 (14 days)
       5 nights Pinneberg (visiting my brother)
       1 night Eisenach
       2 nights Eiseleben (day trip to Mansfeld)
       2 nights Lutherstadt Wittenberg
       2 nights Erfurt
       1 night Augsburg
       1 night Worms (or a second night in Augsburg)
       1 night Strasbourg, France
Italy, round 2 (9 days: primarily vacation with my husband and time to reflect. )
       5 nights in Sappeda, in the Dolomites      
       3-4 nights Milan or Italian Alps with friends
England (4 days)
      4 nights split between central England (Scrooby, Keele) and possibly London.
            (Exact split depends on my nephew's graduation date from University of Keele)
Switzerland/Netherlands (6 days)
      3 nights Zurich
      2 nights Geneva
      1 day Leiden, Netherlands
Scotland (7 nights)
       1 night traveling to Iona, probably night in Oban
       6 night/7 day Braving the Elements retreat with Wild Goose Worship Group
                   at the Iona Community
Germany (21 days)
          2 nights to transit from Iona to Hamburg.  Maybe via Berlin
        18 nights Hamburg, with Brot und Rosen
          1 night Hamburg Airport hostel, prior to my flight

Totals are 100 days, there are an additional 5 days of travel mostly on the ends.     I'm about halfway through booking hostels and the like and have all my airfare, but not train, bus or ferry reservations yet.   I'm holding off on everything for the second Italy time and the time in England, until I have exact dates, and figure out the timeshare thing (we may use a timeshare for part of that time.)

That's my trip!

   
   

Relishing every day

The changes (see my last blog post) to the schedule kind of freed up a week or so for me.    But to try to eat some of that, I discovered a retreat that really speaks to me on the Isle of Iona, but requires me there 6 nights, instead of 3, as originally planned.

That, and working out how things will fit around my godchild's graduation from the University of Keele, not to mention my husband's plans to join us, and his desires to also spend time visiting friends in Europe, mean that I'm doing a lot of shuffling and reshuffling.   All the same places, but in a different order.  

But it also has me contemplating how every moment will be used.   Busy days and less busy days.   Study days and fun days.  Time with family and time in retreat.  AND time in service.   It reminds me how precious every moment of this Sabbatical is, and what a gift, and at the same time, how precious every moment of my life is, and what a gift.

In that vein, I'm trying to make the reshuffling and the planning all a spiritual practice of stewardship: stewardship of this great gift I have, from my church of the time, from the Lilly Endowment of the money to do this.   Thanks be to God!

Change

It has been an eventful winter for change to my plans.   But to some extent they seem to all be God given gifts.   Some might cost me a penny or two but mostly they just enhance the trip.

First, my beloved godchild, AG, has been attending the University of Keele in England, and they will graduate this summer!   Turns out graduation will be the very week I plan to be visiting Scrooby Hall and other Puritan sites, which are located an hour or so from where A is in school.   So heck yes I am going to take time to be in attendance at their graduation!

Then, as I think I mentioned, Brot und Rosen will be shut down the first week I planned to be with them, so I can’t start there until August 10.   I’m going back and checking out Iona for my late July retreat, I discovered a wonderful weeklong retreat around worship happening at Iona the week of August 2-8;   Perfect!   I have two days to get from Iona to Hamburg and all should be great!!!!

So now I am in a flurry of replanting around these events, but definitely feeling blessed.