A vacation day in Savannah

Vacation comes from a Latin word which means to be unoccupied. Vacation has a sense of being a time of recreation, or re-creating.

Yesterday, after greeting God on the beach at sunrise, I recreated through play in Savannah. I was on vacation. 
Breakfast at my favorite bakery in Savannah, Back in the Day. 

Pedicures at a day spa. 

Walk around a favorite museum. 

A movie, Still Alice, that overwhelmed with tears and how we care for those with life challenges of aging and cognition. 
Drive home after dark in the rain to the island. 
God showed the way to re-create. Thank you, God, for a day of vacation. 

Praise. Lauds. Sunrise.

Up early this morning to the sight of the moon setting over the water of the marsh as I prepared to walk to the beach for the sunrise. 


I’ll share the Office we prayed on the beach at sunrise from the prayer book supplement, Daily Prayers for All Seasons.

It’s called, Lauds,which is traditionally prayed at waking. Lauds means praise, which is the very best way to greet a new day. 

Laud ate, omnes gentes, laudate Dominum! [Sing praises, all people, sing praises to the Lord!] 

Bless the Lord, O my soul. 

A Scripture:     
O God, you are my God; eagerly I seek you. Psalm 63:1 58 

A Meditation:    
God has given to the earth the breath that feeds it. 
God’s breath vibrates in yours, in your voice. 
It is the breath of God that you breathe. (Theophilus of Antioch 59)

Contemplate:
How will God breathe through me this day? 

A Prayer:
Lord, you beat in our hearts and thrive in every cell of our bodies. 
All that we are leaps for delight. 
Wherever we go, we know we shall find you there. Amen.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.


A Day to Simply Be

Time does not change us. It just unfolds us.
~ Max Frisch

As I was proofing this blog about a day of rest, I was struck by how often I had used the word spent, as in spent the day, spent the morning, spent the afternoon, spent the evening. What is it about time that curries words like waste, use up, deplete, kill, exhaust?  There have to be better words for how we live our days.  They aren’t to be ticked away but savored and experienced and notated.  

So.

 A wholehearted day of perfect weather on Tybee Island, and my friend and I decided to travel no farther than a mile away to North Beach– a day of lolling on an island. Bliss. 

The morning was not spent but lazed wholeheartedly in my little house on the marsh reading, writing, listening to music, and chitchatting. 

The afternoon was not spent but sauntered wholeheartedly walking on the beach, capping it off praying vesper prayers from Daily Prayers for All Seasons as folks strolled past.  Praying in public indeed. 

The evening was not spent but abided joyfully watching and laughing to Getting On, a very funny comedy about a geriatric unit of a hospital. Ice cream eating was included in the festivities. 
The sunset gift wrapped the day in God’s beauty. 
Time is a game played beautifully by children.
~ Heraclitus

A Miracle Indeed

(A little introduction is required by way of rereading yesterday’s blog, please…….)

The journey to Savannah, Georgia, and my vacation, or is it retreat, on Tybee Island continues:

Yesterday at the airport, after five hours of waiting for a plane, just as I was leaving the terminal to walk to the gate where my detour flight to Columbia, South Carolina was boarding in about an hour, I heard announced, “The 9 AM flight to Savannah is now boarding.”

I raced to the gate where my United agent friend was standing. “Can I change my ticket back to my original flight?”  Of course!  As he hurriedly typed in my sixth boarding pass for the day, I asked him what had happened. He gave me a big smile and said, “It’s a miracle!” 
I still don’t know exactly what happened, except that they finally found a crew and that the plane itself probably needed to get to Savannah or a bunch more flight dominoes were not going to fall.  
The kind agent had seated me in the exit row (woo hoo!), and once we finally took off, except for some bumps, it was an easy flight. 
I thought about the twists and turns of the day–all too frequent, it seems, when I try to get to the people who are important in my life (last week my road trip to see my mom for her birthday had to be cancelled because of icy roads). As I listened to the playlist that contained the songs that the folks in my small group at the Daring Way conference had shared as the music that helps them be courageous, I found myself tearing up again and again–tears being the sign of the presence of Christ, after all.  
I thought about the kindnesses I’d experienced in the twists and turns of the day. A friend who graciously detoured three times on her own long road trip from the mountains of Georgia to Savannah no to Columbia no back to Savannah.  Two gate agents who with humor and care had done their best to make a bad situation better.  Of smart phones and apps which made things a little easier.  Of knitting and music and interesting things to read. That I knew that eventually I’d get to where I needed to be.
I remembered earlier in the day when I’d offered the gate agents a blessing and we’d had a brief, public theophany. 
And then when I landed in Savannah later than planned, but still with time to walk the beach before dark, an email from United with a big apology and a $50 credit towards my next flight. 
A miracle indeed.