The news you never want to wake up to at 3.30 in the morning for your 7.30 AM flight:    CANCELLED. The good news was that I’d been rebooked on the flight arriving at 10.30 tonight except the purpose of my visit was to attend an Indigo Girls–Joan Baez–Mary Chaplin Carpenter concert that would have been done by then. Sigh.

A very helpful United agent helped me find alternate flights that would get me there in time. So I’m going to Raleigh via Charlotte, and my friend waiting for me in Durham is driving over to pick me up so we can make it to the concert. Road trip with a bonus of a first class upgrade!

And when it looked like at 4 this morning that I was going to miss the concert I did remember to pray–for God to get me where I needed to be today.

Thanks, God. Traveling Mary is on her way to a concert in North Carolina.

This is my last day of retreat on Tybee Island.

My friend and I were up before dawn for the walk to the beach to see the sunrise.  Then we sat on a swing that faced the ocean and did morning prayers to greet the new day.

Returning back to the Blue Bird Cottage, enjoying the first coffee of the morning,  I continued to read and pray.  As is my custom when I travel, I prayed a month’s worth of the St. Mary’s daily cycle of prayer.  I love holding the name of each St. Mary’s parishioner in my hands and heart and lifting them to The Holy One. It’s a particularly good practice as I prepare to return to be with them for worship in the morning.

Yesterday afternoon I sat at the table the looks over the marsh and created a few cards.  As the sun set, I held friends and family in prayer.

One of the most frequent questions I’ve been asked this week is, “So what exciting plans do you have for today?”

My friend and I usually respond first with silence and then say something about walking on the beach or making cards or being quiet.  The very kind folks usually follow up with a list of delightful suggestions of things we should do.  I am grateful, but those kinds of activities haven’t been what I’ve been looking for this trip.

I’ve been thinking about the need to do things.  I have a job, which I love beyond words, that is full of  things done, and more often, left undone.  I am aware of how every choice I make has consequences, not only for me, but for a host of other people. I get a lot of feedback when those choices have unintended consequences, both positive and not so positive.  It takes a lot of thought and even more prayer to go though each day as a priest.

These past eleven months I’ve had even more things done and left undone because of decisions about rebuilding the Rectory.  I’ve gotten to a point that when friends ask me to make a choice, if it really isn’t a big deal, I want them to make it (Which seat do you want?  Where do you want to eat?  Which movie shall we go see?).

On these five days on Tybee Island, number fourteen of what began as a vacation lo that many years back and has become an annual Lenten retreat, I find myself on slow time.  I love not having the clock tell me when to get up and having no schedule to follow.  My friend, who went through the flood, literally, with me, is going through her own healing process post-Tax Day Flood, and is in sync with floating through these days.

I’ve floated into new places this year.  This morning instead of getting up to see the sunrise, I slept in.  I was rewarded with flocks of birds in front of my cottage–herons, egrets, cardinals, and even bluebirds.

Yesterday, on our one, and most likely only trip off the Island until I fly home tomorrow, at breakfast at one of my favorite places in Savannah, Back in the Day Bakery, while enjoying the most delicious breakfast biscuit I’ve ever eaten with a luscious, foamy cappuccino, a woman dressed in very simple clothes stopped on the street, and appeared to look longingly at us eating our fabulous upscale treats.  After she began to walk away, on what I believe was a Holy Spirit nudge, I went out to offer to buy her breakfast.  If she was hungry, how could I eat this extravagant meal?  Alas, she was gone from view.

I looked out and saw several men on the corner, gathering because a mission that provided resources for them was across the street.  How could I keep from sharing?  As my friend and I left, a took a hundred dollar bill I keep hidden in my wallet for emergencies, and went inside and gave to The Old Savanah City Mission.  #15 of the 24 Project.  

After lovely pedicures at a spa in Savannah, my friend and I decided the other things we’d thought about doing–visiting an art museum, shopping at SCAD, lunch at a favorite local barbecue place– were things that could be left undone.  Largely, I’ll admit, at her urging, we returned to the Island in time for the Thursday healing Eucharist.

I’m accomplishing what I think God has in store for me this retreat in Lent:  time for my soul to catch up with my body.

I can forget that it’s still winter, when my air conditioner has been running occasionally since January with Houston’s too frequent eighty degree days. With a wind chill below thirty degrees here on Tybee Island this morning, it was a good day to be inside.

A lolling day was just what I needed.  I didn’t get up until nearly eight, and I spent the first hours of the morning reading and praying.

I had one project to work on while I am here.  Women Touched by Grace is a program for women clergy of which I have been part–first as a participant, and then twice as a facilitator.  Originated by a small group of women clergy in conjunction with the women religious of Our Lady of Grace Monastery, this ministry is a unique opportunity for women clergy to be in community and conversation with the sisters of the monastery.

The first three groups were funded through a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment.  For the past two years, I have been part of a group of women who have been working to secure long term funding for the ministry.  We have received ongoing financial pledges from all sixty-eight clergy women who have been part of Women Touched by Grace; we WTBG-ers, in turn, are inviting others to be part of a longterm financial effort called Circle of Grace.   Earlier this year, the Lilly Endowment invited us to apply for a grant that would assist us in securing additional generous funding.

This morning was the time I’d set aside to write my part of the grant. I am passionate about supporting clergy, particularly women clergy, and it was a fine way to spend a part of my Lenten retreat.