#summerplans | itsawonderfilledlife

Posts Tagged ‘#summerplans’

Summer Plans

Posted in WONDER, tagged #justbreath, #psalm46:10, #summerplans, #summerrest, #summervacation, #wendellberry on June 26, 2015| Leave a Comment »

Our final staff meeting of the school year ended with a prayer, but before that, a poem:

“There is a day
when the road neither
comes nor goes, and the way
is not a way but a place”
Wendell Berry

For me, summer break began today. The joys and delights of rest, recreation and refreshment are now at my fingertips. Time is on my side, as living for the clock has been replaced with living for the sake of living.

As we all know, these times of vacation, and the delights associated with them are not an indicator of displeasure with our life’s work, but a need to change perspective so that we might have fresh and clearer focus when we return to our jobs, our professions, our work.

I have such plans for this summer …

refinishing furniture and selling it

tending my garden, my roses, each morning

more exercising

cleaning closets

painting bedrooms

finding more furniture to refinish, to sell

I am feeling tired just writing my plans …

But …

“There is a day
when the road neither
comes nor goes, and the way
is not a way but a place”

Maybe my plans, your plans, need further consideration. Maybe our plans for down time ought to actually include down time. Maybe the road we should consider traveling this summer is one without destination (or accomplishment). Maybe the only direction we need is to breath, to be still, just for a little while.

“He says,
be still and know that I am God.”
Psalm 46:10

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If You Could Vacation Anywhere …

Posted in WONDER, tagged #cannonbeach, #ifyoucouldvacationanywhere, #summerplans, #whatareyoursummerplans, CBCC on May 15, 2014| 1 Comment »

The other day at work, a friend asked about my plans this summer. I paused, because, at this moment I have no plans.

My kids, they have plans.

One is spending her summer working at a camp for families dealing with cancer.

One is spending about half the summer on work crew at a camp, doing everything from scrubbing toilets to working on a camp radio station.

One is working part of the time and volunteering at a camp as a helper to kids attending who might have special needs.

Hubby and I felt that with the kids away throughout the summer … well … it means we get to experience vacationing at home … no taxiing kids, no groups over, no video games blaring … you get the point.

Also this week a student asked me,

“If you could vacation anywhere, where would you go?”

There was not a pause in my thoughts, as I replied,

“Cannon Beach, Oregon.”

Our family, or parts of it, have spent a week at Cannon Beach, Oregon, for the past five or six summers. Each time we enjoyed a week at Cannon Beach Christian Conference Center. The families who we have met there have become dear friends, who we get to re-unite with the same week each summer. Our kids communicate with their friends from there, as well. The conference center has thought of every detail offering two amazing meals each day, youth group like activities every morning and evening for kids up to college, world renowned speakers, and a 2-5 minute commute to the beach … just a 20-30 minute walk to Haystack Rock.

Although we have yet to make plans, the presence of the morning sun, the warming temperatures and the end of the school year keep whispering into my ears,

you want to go to Cannon Beach,

and the whisper doesn’t have to be that loud!

So, how about you?

What are your plans this summer?

If you could vacation anywhere … ?

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