Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Exodus 6:8

If I had an agent, they would be fussing at me for allowing six weeks between journal posts.  Because I am my own agent, you can bet I know I should be fussing at myself.  But, unlike an agent at a desk in another city far away, I know how hectic the last six weeks have been.  So, I let myself off the hook.  If I tell you that I have been on vacation, you will wonder why I didn’t have time to write.  Think again.  Consider what a planner I am and know that my vacation left me exhausted.  We started out with a dog trial on the east coast of Florida (Cory got her first Nosework title, yeah!).  Then, we took two days to drive to see our son and his wife in Lynchburg, Virginia.  Five nights there with lots of hiking and sightseeing, then a short drive to see my college roommate in Kingsport, Tennessee for two nights.  Two nights in Greenville, South Carolina visiting with a college professor and loading up on university souvenirs, then, to North Georgia for a four-day Nosework camp.  A trip of over a thousand miles.  Finally, two days to get home and return right back to work where a Federal grant application is kicking my butt.  This week ended with my dad’s surgery and two-night hospital stay.  Oh, add in their three doctor’s visits of my own. I am worn out.   As much as I would like to write while we travel and in fact, haul my clunky laptop with me, by the time we figure out dinner, walk to and from the bath house and settle in for the night, I can’t think of anything but sleep.  I rarely even read, even the most entertaining book.  I lie down in the front bunk of the camper and holler at Glen to turn down the TV.  I’m not the most pleasant travelling companion.  I do think about writing during the day and have a lot of stories to tell.  It is just I am so busy living them that I don’t have time to record them.  Hopefully, in the coming weeks, I will have the energy to share them with you.  In the meantime, you are left with my lame excuses which a real agent would see right through.  Life goes on, even for a writer.  But, I think the most important thing I am learning or at least trying to learn, mostly unsuccessfully, is the importance of rest.  Of emptying my mind of nothing but the sound of the wind in the trees and rain on the roof (which we had a lot of, even snow).   Of not planning anything, of just letting serendipity take charge.  That’s my goal.  I think our interpretation of God’s command to keep the Sabbath holy forgets that God knew we would need to take at least one day a week to truly rest.   One of these days, I will get the hang of that!