Time Passages

Last week I looked at my syllabus for my Spiritual Formation class (the one for seminary), and I had a small jolt.  It's the week where we discuss spiritual journaling, and I had a sudden, intense memory of when I first looked at the syllabus, back in mid-August when it was first available, and I saw that we would be exploring spiritual journaling.  I remember thinking, but that's practically mid-November--that's so far away.  And now, here we are.

I checked out a book from the public library for the class, and I renewed it as many times as I could, and now it is due.  I don't need to check it out again.  The class is pretty much through with that text.  But it's another indication of how time is zooming away.

I realize I come to this blog periodically to write about this, and I offer no apologies.

Daylight Savings Time, and its ending, gives us another reason/way to think about time.  Yesterday driving home from church, I forgot that I had yet to change the clock in the car.  I thought about how late it was getting.  A bit later, as I was preparing lunch/dinner, I realized what had happened, and it was like I got an extra hour all over again.  Until bedtime, of course, when I made this Facebook post/tweet:  "It is 6:50 Eastern Standard Time. My body thinks it is an hour later, which means I am still keeping toddler bedtimes. If I laid down right now, I bet I would sleep until morning, by which I mean my usual morning wake up time of 4 or 4:30."

In some ways, this past week-end was a regular autumnal week-end, full of chores and school work and grading and cooking.  In some ways, it was unique:  I preached the All Saints Sunday sermon for example (for sermon notes/summary, see this post on my theology blog).  I had a strange assortment of aches and pains--was it related to the booster shot that I got Friday night, the slightly cooler weather that arrived (finally!) along with the end of daylight savings time, or something else that will remain mysterious?

And here we are, the end of another week-end, the beginning of another week of seminary classes.  I feel just slightly behind, although I know there will be time to catch up.  And I know that there's not much time left:  in this semester, in this time before the house sale closes, in this month, in this season, and in this year.