Sabbatical Wonder Tour – The Spiral Staircase

Some sabbaticals have themes. For my first sabbatical (2002) the theme was “recover from cancer surgery.” A sabbatical had been planned but it was replaced by 12 weeks of recovery from surgery, most of which I don’t remember. #Percoset

My second (really my first) sabbatical, was just a couple years later when the theme was “places where churches thrive but followers of Jesus are in the minority.” I spent time in a couple U.S. cities known for their lack of churchiness and several Muslim countries, thanks to the Lilly Foundation.

This year’s sabbatical had no set theme except to rest. I rest by reading and writing and drinking coffee in lovely places and staring into space looking at wondrous things like ancient ruins and turquoise seas and rocky cliffs. I finished reading Awe and realized that this is actually a sabbatical about wonder. Thank you God.

And this brings me to the spiral staircase. HH and I rented a place with an awesome view. That’s pretty much why we chose this place. It’s not fancy but the view is spectacular. And it has a spiral staircase.

A spiral staircase is one of those home features like a fire pole or a canopy bed that I always wanted in my home as a child. A spiral staircase is a space saver but – after about 3 minutes – I was over it And yet, a couple weeks living with the spiral staircase have worked well in terms of slowing down.

You can’t run up or down a spiral staircase. Really, you can’t.

Also you can’t carry many things on a spiral staircase. It’s tricky carrying a load of laundry much less a piece of furniture. But it’s kind of growing on me – not to the extent that I need one – but in terms of appreciating the requirement to move slowly especially upon approach. We’ve banged our heads more than once just walking up to it.

And so this is sabbatical 2023. I am in awe of so many things I’ve seen, conversations I’ve experienced, foods I’ve eaten, people I’ve observed. Dacher Keltner says that “awe awakens the better angels of our nature.” Yes, and it does more than that. Future posts.

I’ve needed this. Actually all of us need it.

I’ve been keeping my boundaries in terms of “not working” during sabbatical but one thing keeps gnawing at me and it’s something I hope to do when I return in September. How can our Presbytery make it possible to gift sabbatical time/funding for church professionals who ordinarily do not receive one (i.e. transitional pastors, temporary supply pastors, part-time pastors, pastors in validated ministries, musicians, educators, administrators)? And how can we assist their congregations in making sabbatical possible?

We have a few more days at this location with our spiral staircase. I’m going to miss it, but not as much as I miss our view of the Tyrrhenian Sea. I’m thoroughly drenched in privilege and I hope to share it.