"ah, there you are ..."

That is the way a friend from a former parish oftentimes begins her handwritten, snail-mailed notes. It's as though she's walked into the room in search of me. "Ah, there you are!" she says, and then launches into animated conversation. She's lively in person and her notes are only slightly less so.

I have been missing. I didn't take the month of February off intentionally. That just happened. And, I don't have much to show for the time I've been hidden away, but I think it's been a productive time, nonetheless.

There have been travels. Six days to Virginia (VTS Alumni/ae Executive Committee and Board of Trustees, plus a visit with the Mechanicsville Tarboxes coming and going). An overnight in Clinton SC for the launch of the Episcopal Search Committee. Another overnight in York SC for the York Place board retreat.

There have been several exceptional events. A Superbowl party to which the local NBC affiliate came (yes, to Edgefield of all places!). Lunch at a new restaurant in N Augusta with a friend. A farewell performance of Riverdance in Columbia. The consecration and dedication of the new chapel at the Bishop Gravatt Camp and Conference Center here in the diocese. Takeout pancakes and sausage on Shrove Tuesday.

There have been periods of quiet. And, it is that aspect of the month which is proving most noteworthy. Writing a piece (on desolation) for our diocesan publication, Crosswalk; preparing three meditations (on forgiveness) for a quiet morning I am to lead next weekend; readying myself to enter several photographs in a local gallery in mid-March have required intentional solitude, focused study, determined courage. Long walks more for simply being than for fitness or even for thinking have taken up countless hours.

From outward appearances February was a fallow month. But, I'm old enough and observant enough and appreciative enough of our earth's cycles to know that there's significant growth happening out of sight during the most fallow of times.

I'm back -- and glad.

A postscript: The rains arrived late on Friday and the water continues to fall this afternoon. Almost 48 hours so far. Yesterday some periods of precipitation were so long and intense that the overflow on the pond couldn't handle the water. Fortunately, Tal's son, Bruce, was visiting for the morning and together they widened the spillway in time to save the dam. But, it was close.

The photograph to the left shows our normal route across the spillway and onto the dam. Below is a view of Tal and Bruce at work. You can see in the upper left quadrant where the water had been crossing the dam before they increased the flow through the spillway.

Veritas at VTS

Outside the door to the Bishop Payne Library here at VTS is an inscription: "Seek the Truth, come whence it may, cost what it will." These inescapable words of William Sparrow, an early professor of the seminary, are favored by students and faculty alike. They are quoted in at least one student sermon each academic year and are part of the undergirding fabric of VTS and its mission to send people out into all the world to proclaim the gospel.

The brainchild of Dean Ian Markham and drawing on Sparrow's chiseled imperative, VTS unveiled a new tag line last week when the campus was welcoming people gathering for the May meetings of the AAEC and the Board of Trustees and for the institution's 185th commencement. Employing the Latin word for truth, veritas, banners -- both freestanding (called "bannerups") and displayed on streetlamps -- announce and illustrate specifics of the mission: ministry, growth, justice, prayer, service, practice. The photograph here, which I made late one evening last week, shows two of the banners along sidewalk near the entrances to guest houses Johns and Wilmer.



Emerging from veritas are the letters VTS. Convenient, huh? Hence, two ways of reading the banners: in this instance, veritas (truth) for justice. Or, VTS (Virginia Theological Seminary) for justice.

The evaluation of the First Three Years Program (which focuses on the transition from seminary to parish) will conclude at lunch tomorrow and my frequent trips here will be finished until the week of Convocation in October. These two days with members of the 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2005 classes and their mentors, faculty, representatives from the Lilly Foundation have been challenging and full. We've told the truth -- lots of it -- and we've heard the truth -- lots of it. I am hopeful, even optomistic, that our efforts will result in better prepared and more deeply grounded clergy emerging from their formative three years in this place.

Friday -- after five

Ah, Friday. I’ve been looking forward to this for days!

For the first time since early February I’ve been obsessively engaged in two deadline projects. The word obsessively equating to chained to the computer and inundated with paper – at the kitchen counter, in the study, on the porch table.

All God’s Creatures, a local pet rescue and adoption non-profit, is sponsoring a golf tournament in mid-May and I am one among many volunteers. And, as steward for the Virginia Seminary class of 1992, it was my task to communicate with the class on the 16th anniversary of our graduation. Both projects required composing and proofreading letters, making copies, producing mailing and return address labels, affixing proper postage to dozens of envelopes. The whole mess took days. And, getting everything to the post office before five o’clock this afternoon was the goal.

I am here to report success!

Practically nothing else was accomplished all week. Simple meals. But, no reading to speak of. No photography. No housework. No exercise. No writing. No quiet contemplation.

I wish I were less prone to this compulsive approach. Things might be more enjoyable if I would work on such projects for a time every day, not make them the sole activity of hour upon hour. Oh, and I could also enlist some assistance, I suppose. Now, why does that seem to be such an impossibility to consider?

On the other hand, I am grateful that I have time to volunteer at all. While gainfully employed there was not a scrap of time for such extras.

Maybe the next project will be different. Do I hear laughter?!