I’ll admit, freely, that I am terrible at keeping the Sabbath holy.

This lack of respect, or lack of understanding really, only proliferated in college, when the norm was to crash until 2pm on Saturday only to spend the afternoon hours getting ready for more leisurely activities in the evening… Sunday was always left with the catch-up work, filled with all the stuff procrastinators know best, which is extreme productivity at the last minute (for me, sometimes, literally).  Sunday was the day to finish studying and to prepare for the week ahead in school, clubs and everything else I’d piled high on my plate that semester.  I don’t think I ever respected the Sabbath, sincerely, until I came to be in this Catholic community.  And that makes sense, because the Catholics have an insane degree of discipline in these sorts of things, that I totally lacked in my evangelical setting in college.

Anyway, my Sabbaths are getting better.  Today I was deliberate with my time, taking an incredibly long bike ride and allowing my thoughts to clear with my simplest thoughts remaining on the nature surrounding the trails I rode.  When I got back to the Welcoming House, I peeked into our back yard and noticed these beauties:

These bloomed just today, obviously agreeing with the blatantly gorgeous weather and the plentiful sunshine.  Definitely symbolic of the renewing I’ve experienced during my Sabbath day.  Just a handful of months left here in MN… I can’t wait to see our garden radiating like when I first moved here in August.