I thought I’d better stop by to make an apology to the few of you who seem to look forward to something appearing here on a regular basis. There are at least two reasons the Sacred Journey has been a quiet one these past few weeks…

1. The New House. Karyn and I have been spending pretty much every waking moment outside of our jobs getting the Tyson Ave. house ready for our occupation in late July. I think we’re only just now realizing how much work there really was to do (someone who came to help us the first weekend said we were “crazy”…and he was probably close to the mark!), but it is so encouraging to see something not only livable but even desirable emerging from the chaos.

2. This one is more a consequence of #1 than a “reason,” but it’s probably been a good thing for this blog to take a little vacation. However unintentionally, I fear it generated much heat with perhaps too little light in the closing months of the school term. In any case, perhaps I have now fallen off the radar screen of some watchbloggers, and for that I will be grateful.

Tomorrow Karyn and I leave for two weeks on the road. We’ll first head down to Charlottesville, VA, our home for twelve years before coming to Philly. There we’ll be attending a reunion of old friends, including our dear former assistant pastor and his family, who moved to California a few months before we left Virginia. Then it’s up to Maine for two nights at The Crags, a summer home owned by a friend on an island off the coast. Close your eyes, think “Maine summer house on the coast,” and you’re seeing this place. Karyn has been there before, but I’ve only seen pictures. I’m very excited that this time we’ll both be together at our vision of the New Earth. For Fourth of July week we’ll be in the Adirondacks of New York with our entire family (both daughters and sons-in-law and all five grandchildren) along with cameo appearances by Karyn’s sisters and their families.

Karyn is so talented at springing wonderful surprises upon me, and she’s done it again. Knowing that my only midlife crisis fantasy was to have a Jeep Wrangler, she did the next best thing. She rented a Jeep Liberty for our trip. We’re using the convenient excuse that our ever-faithful Hyundai is now past its 100,000 mile warranty and needs to get us through at least three more years of seminary, so its road trip days have come to an end. Any excuse that gets me behind the wheel of a Jeep is a good one, as far as I’m concerned.

Blogwise, I hope to do some story writing while we’re on vacation. If we hit some wireless hot spots, I’ll at least try to send you some updates from the highway.

In the follow-up department, Joel Garver has finally gone public with his take on the behind-the-scenes thinking and planning that produced Presbyterians and Presbyterians Together (original document here, our discussion here and here).

This entry was posted on Friday, June 23rd, 2006 at 10:25 pm and is filed under It`s All About Me. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.