When You Wake Up So Very Early on a Sunday Morning

 

In repentance and rest is your salvation,

in quietness and trust is your strength,

but you would have none of it.

Isaiah 30:15

We're getting such a small dose of things here in our region.  The bigger storm is north and east of us, and from the reports and pictures, it's much more of a thing for them.  Lots of people without power this morning.

I, on the other hand, am in the enviable position of waking up in a warm, lit house, taking pretty pictures off my front porch, and anticipating a Sunday morning service that is still on.  The nature of my weekend is unusually low key, in that I have absolutely no responsibilities, no meetings, nothing I need to 'show up' for, other than being present within my community to worship together.  

Because I'm an early riser normally, and because I slept so well last night (yay for jet lag's departure), I am up and dressed and ready to roll by 6 a.m.  Our fairly recent move to having only one vehicle means I am not free to head over to the church whenever I like.  Today, by mutual agreement, we aren't leaving until much later than I'm used to.  And that's okay.

It's been a bit of a week.  These days, there's always 'the news.'  And on Friday there were those anxious moments between hearing 'the news' about the earthquake in Thailand, and hearing from beloveds there that they are okay.  Then there was the 'keep an eye on it' set back following a root canal procedure on Monday. Some pressing deadlines thrown in.  And all tolled, it was enough to make me more cautious about how I'm expending my energies, and grateful I had the foresight to clear off the calendar to make space for this first full week back. 

Yesterday was truly a treat; the first Saturday in I don't know how long where neither Ken nor I had anything booked except for taking care of the 'domestics' (so much easier and quicker in our new little house) and continuing with some smaller items on the house list (eg. finally looked after all those loose wires in the corner!).  

This morning has a similar feel.  And this afternoon, after church, we can just come home and hunker down.  Perhaps a game of Scrabble?  

I'm lingering in it.  Unhurried.  Listening.  Paying attention in the lull of it.  Enjoying it.  And I realize, in these moments, I think, maybe, I'm finally starting to grow in this.

I am mindful of a text I have posted often before, so I stop and insert it at the beginning here, underneath the picture.  

It's a go to.  A centering text.  Even with, especially with the rebuke at the end.  And I think, maybe, I'm learning.  At least I hope so.  In the past these pockets of nothing-time made me antsy.  I would be having none of it.  Especially on a Sunday morning, but here I'll give myself slack because that's decades of conditioning I'm having to unlearn.  

Yet this morning I'm finding a mindfulness, an attentiveness in the space.  Another way to prepare for worship.  

Good gifts, these unhurried spaces, when you wake up so very early on a Sunday morning.