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Sabbatical

Heading Home

We leave Italy soon and will be heading home. The last few days in Tuscany have been filled with great food, beautiful sights, shopping, and relaxing with a glass of Prosecco. The private tasting at a nearby winery was great fun, as was the multi-course meal at a restaurant in Montepulciano. Every scenic road around Sienna, Cortona, Montepulciano has been explored. We lit a candle in the cathedral in memory of those who joined Christ in heaven, “…we cannot be far from one another, though some may be in heaven and some upon earth.”

My October break is nearly over …

D'Oliva Olive Oil, Family, Sabbatical, Westmont,

Ciao from Italy!

Ciao from Italy! Wish I could post photos but WordPress seems to hate iPads. But trust me, we are seeing great stuff!

D’Aun and I spent the first few days in Rome overcoming jet lag and touring the city. Our tour guide, Angelo, was great and created special events that we’ll remember a long time. For instance, the first day we headed out of town to an olive mill that his brother-in-law owned … and along the way we stopped at the bridge just outside of the old city of Rome where Emperor Constantine had his vision of the cross …

Sabbatical,

Sabbatical Contentment

About the time I started planning my sabbatical break, John Ortberg began his. John and I have known each other for a few years and I serve on the Emerging Ministries board with his wife Nancy. Their daughter and son-in-law, who traveled to Belize with me last August, suggested I contact John and ask for advice about how to “do” a sabbatical. It was a good suggestion because it was a good fit: neither John nor I had taken a sabbatical before and I’m about the same age as John (though he has more hair … but hey, he’s a …

Book Reviews, Sabbatical,

Reading List

Yesterday I posted an update about my October sabbatical. So today I’ll update my reading list.

I finished John Ortberg’s The Me I Want To Be. A good book, very Ortberg-ish. Focuses on spiritual growth, with self-depreciating humor and fun stories. It’s not John’s most entertaining book nor his most theological book. Instead, it puts his PhD in Psychology to good use as it looks at the barriers that keep us from spiritual growth. The book is linked to the Monvee program.

Martin Dugard’s Into Africa: The Epic Adventures of Stanley and Livingstone was a great book! I love …

D'Oliva Olive Oil, Sabbatical,

October Update

Since it’s a third of the way through the October break, it seems time for an update.

The first few days were spent working on D’Oliva Olive Oil projects. Obviously the big accomplishment was getting 125 new trees planted on October 2nd. But there were “behind the scenes” projects that D’Aun had me working on before that.

On Sunday the 3rd I was so tired from the tree planting that I slept in late. That evening D’Aun, Jedd and I joined friends and went to a great dinner at the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture in San Francisco. …

Sabbatical,

Lord, have mercy!

I’m heading out of town tomorrow for some solitude. Or as friends in the past have described it, my “leave me the hell alone” time. Hopefully I’ll update this blog with whatever thoughts come my way.

In the meantime, I wanted to share something from the “Celtic Daily Prayers” that I’m reading as a daily devotional. There is a liturgical responsive reading that is done each morning. Here is a portion of it:

Who is it that you seek?
We seek the Lord our God.
Do you seek Him with all your heart?
Amen. Lord, have mercy.
Do you seek …

Emerging Ministries, Goble Properties, PathLight, Random Thoughts, Sabbatical, Westmont,

The House of the Lord

My month long break begins today. Hallelujah!

For the last month and for the month to come, I’ve been working through prayers and readings in the book “Celtic Daily Prayer”. The Morning Prayer begins like this:

One thing I have asked of the Lord,
this is what I seek:
that I may dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life;
to behold the beauty of the Lord
and to seek Him in His temple.

This comes from Psalm 27:4. I love this start because it expresses the foundation of this sabbatical month. Dwelling in the …

Family, Goble Properties, PathLight, Sabbatical, Uncategorized,

Last Day

Tomorrow I begin my October sabbatical. Or as my friend Ian calls it, my October Jubilee. I’m really looking forward to the partial “digital fast” of no email or voicemail (though I will still write on this blog). I’m also looking forward to unstructured days that allow time for thought, reflection, and prayer.

One of the goals of this break is to recalibrate. I’m not looking for a new job or new spiritual experience. It’s not a “halftime” event. But I do feel the need to stop, rest, create a bit of margin in my life, and spend time without …