slack time...

This week we're at the beach... and it has been wonderful. No real time schedule to keep. Maybe three meals a day, and maybe five. Maybe we eat green vegetables, and maybe we just enjoy the fresh corn, shrimp, stone crab and tuna steaks!!! (Yeah. I think I will go with the corn and seafood!)

It's slack time... In nautical terms, that's the time in between the changes of the tides... The waves are smaller, the current is relaxed, and your footing is very secure. In those moments, the bottom is clearest because there's less sediment being kicked up. You can see things you would normally miss as they navigate by you in the water.

Then, quickly and almost without warning, the tide turns. The waves pick up and things start getting tossed about. If you aren't careful, you are either left high and dry, or you get overrun by the advancing waves. Those moments have their excitement, to be sure. But it's kinda nice to be in the slack water, even just for a few precious hours!

My semester starts up this week. Classes and my internship begin Wednesday. I have a whole bunch of niggling fears but have been working on releasing them, not carrying them around like so many dead fish! The kids start back to school next Monday ("MOommmm!!! Don't REMIND us!") and that means all of their associated activities with school as well. All too soon it'll be... "SURF'S UP!!!"

I'm taking a deep breath.
Drinking in the quiet.
Soaking up the slack time...
Remembering and treasuring the places we have seen God this week...

And as I do, a verse of an old hymn comes to mind...
O, how great Thy loving kindness,
Vaster, broader than the sea!
O, how marvelous Thy goodness,
Lavished all on me!
Yes, I rest in Thee, Belovèd,
Know what wealth of grace is Thine,
Know Thy certainty of promise,
And have made it mine.
["Jesus, I am Resting, Resting" Words: Jean Pigott, 1876. Music: James Mountain, 1876]


Can't beat that...

Deb