Pacing Not Racing

credit: Boaz Yiftach freedigitalphotos.net

Zzzzzzzzzzz.  I need to pace myself;  Franciscan simplicity is in short supply just now. This Myers-Briggs Introvert and Enneagram 6 is badly in need of a good dose of "get up and go." I've had a run of perfectly worth spirituality type events over the last few weeks with more in the pipeline. Loads of input all needing to be processed with much output, too. It's the latter which really drains me: this was the second Saturday night  in a row when I was so exhausted  I was in my pyjamas by 7.30 pm!  I can pussshhh myself outwards  quite convincingly; love it even,  but, boy, do I need my time back in my shell to recover. So I spent this afternoon curled up with a blanket, hot waterbottle and our latest book club read - CJ Sansom's Dissolution: blood, gore and sinister goings-ons in Reformation England. I don't think I'll be able to visit a monastery ever again without checking over my shoulder every five minutes for  cowled figures slinking about in the shadows, secret passages, sinister spyholes and falling masonry!

Going round in circles

We shall not cease from exploration 

And the end of all our exploring 
Will be to arrive where we started 
And know the place for the first time. 
     T.S. Eliot -- "Little Gidding" ( Four Quartets)

Following  my profound "thunks" on the labyrinth earlier, here are some images that have and continue to have a profound effect on 'Growing Greenpatches' . Much processing going on offline; maybe some of it will find its way onto this blog. Wandering round in circles isn't as counterproductive as it might appear at first, I'm finding. I've had plenty of practice after all; whether it involves pulling on my spiritual or actual walking shoes, when I take the time to stop and reflect on Who I am, despite my gumblings about blisters, bumps, and all kinds of other woes, I realise that underneath it all, I'm enjoying the journey. "All will be well..."