Lists

In less than two weeks, October 8th to be exact, I will be back in the saddle at First Church. I'm looking forward to it. I've been away for the right amount of time. I truly entered a rhythm of a different order, a sabbath rhythm. Heart, soul, mind, and body feel refreshed, renewed. My slumber is deeper, my rising in the morning is quicker, my enthusiasm for living is heartier.

Over the past several days I have been giving some thought to my sabbatical. There are words out there to describe it. I've used a lot of them in this space already. However, the current words, at least for the moment, are failing me. I'm not sure what this means.

I've long been a fan of lists. Lists of books, of songs, of historical figures, great baseball games, places, etc. Sometimes lists make sense. Other times they do not. Sometimes they do, but it's not apparent upon the initial read through. A second or third reading is necessary for the sense to emerge.

Here are a couple of lists I have assembled. By the way, I assemble lists as one method by which to push through writer's block. I've been known to do this when crafting a sermon.

List one is of places I've visited while on sabbatical: Cooperstown, NY; Maryville, TN; Nags Head, NC; Oxford, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Edinbrugh, Scotland; Melrose, Scotland; Pitlochry, Scotland; Inverness, Scotland; Invergarry, Scotland; Fort William, Scotland; Ballachullish, Scotland; Boston, MA; Lenox, MA.

List two is of words that I have collected. I have developed the habit of writing down words that are new to me. It's one way of reminding myself of the paltry percentage of words of our wonderful language that I know and use regularly. I can always know and use more. Here it is: penannular, virescent, periglacial, celerity, contumacy, enfiladed, fatuities, propinquities, compunctions, disported, ormolu, embowered, inanition, benison, chiliad, adipose, bedizened, imprecations, vaticinations, onanistic, auriferous, tyro, niggled, priapic, foofaraw, adumbrated, ratiocinator, pantechniconic, trochaically, aitchless, advoirdupois, bloviate, cynosure, gonfalon, fissiparous, sinistrality, uxorial, matutinal.

That's it for the moment. Peace.