Space.

Still checking in on the campus minister blogathon ... this is what caught my heart today.  Seems like lately others are speaking what I feel better than I am myself.  For now, while I look for my own words, I'll take it.

Fire
by Judy Brown

What makes a fire burn
is space between the logs,
a breathing space.
Too much of a good thing,
too many logs
packed in too tight
can douse the flames
almost as surely
as a pail of water would.
So building fires
requires attention
to the spaces in between,
as much as to the wood.
When we are able to build
open spaces
in the same way
we have learned
to pile on the logs,
then we can come to see how
it is fuel, and absence of the fuel
together, that make fire possible.
We only need to lay a log
lightly from time to time.
A fire
grows
simply because the space is there,
with openings
in which the flame
that knows just how it wants to burn
can find its way.

I live my life, the same way I build my fires ... as frantically as possible ... and quickly as possible, trying to add enough wood and enough fuel to not have to tend to it often.  It is so refreshing to be reminded that our students DO live life at a frantic pace ... one that we both help create and adopt.

Summer should bring a slower pace.  But yesterday was another 13+ hour day at the B.  Ready to find a slower pace with more space ... to hear, to respond, to invest, to be.  It's been a while.

But I feel it coming.  The mountains of CO are calling me some time ... and some away time with the family.  That's been a while too.  Ready to drink it in!