time more than flying

ouch.... how did it get to be this many days since the last post?
...well I did have a wedding and another funeral, since then, and there was a hospital visit in St Cloud and a pre-marriage session with another couple..and a trip to Star lake to do my annual food tasting adventure with the GUMYs...plus the local hospital and nursing homes. I usually try to do at least 3 to 5 pastoral contacts a day, besides what happens, and who walks into the office; and then Finance and Trustees meetings and so on.
In my visits today I actually was able to meet with 3 of my intended visits in care centers and the hospital while another visit got interrupted by a loud fire alarm that had been activated by shower steam a few rooms down, another person was wrapped up in the after-supper bingo game, one was out of the room. Visiting with people and sharing a prayer is one of favorite things to do but it too often gets croweded into the edges of everything else.
Earlier today I started on a future sermon and spent some time preparing some devotional/reflection material for the trip to Rosebud SD. (We leave Sunday morning around 6:30) ) I pulled together some of my favorite quotes from sources like inward/outward or The Upper Room Reflections and Verse and Voice that comes from Sojourners. They usually have something that sounds right and true even if I don't really live up to it.
For example what do you think and feel when you read something like this? "Every time you sacrifice something at great cost—every time you renounce something that appeals to you for the sake of the poor—you are feeding a hungry Christ"
.- Mother Teresa
"Cry Freedom" by Charles Ringma

I am pretty sure that the sacrifice she is speaking of is more than the one hour a month I spend washing dishes at the soup kitchen or spending a week of service at Rosebud. Maybe I keep busy so I won't have to listen very deeply to the wisdom or truth in words like that. Maybe there is a reason to keep "time flying?"

For now I will simply go out for a stroll and listen to the crickets and the cool feel of an August evening..and see what comes from a moment like that...maybe time will slow down
and I can listen ..and feel....and.....welcome the gift of a beautiful moon.