Sabbatical three and a half weeks in

At the end of February Martin gave up his job with a view to taking six months off as a Sabbatical.  This is something we started saving for a while back, after we were struck by the idea of the Sabbatical year in the Leviticus 25 in the Bible:

The Lord spoke to Moses on Mount Sinai, saying, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: When you enter the land that I am giving you, the land shall observe a Sabbath for the Lord. Six years you shall sow your field, and six years you shall prune your vineyard and gather in their yield, but in the seventh year there shall be a Sabbath of complete rest for the land, a Sabbath for the Lord: you shall not sow your field or prune your vineyard. You shall not reap the aftergrowth of your harvest or gather the grapes of your unpruned vine: it shall be a year of complete rest for the land. You may eat what the land yields during its Sabbath—you, your male and female slaves, your hired and your bound laborers who live with you, for your livestock also, and for the wild animals in your land all its yield shall be for food.

 Leviticus 25:1-7, NRSV

A fun wander at Eric Armishaw reserve

For my Sabbath 'fun thing' today I went to Eric Armishaw Park just after low tide for a wander over the beach and mudflats.  In the process, I learned that mangroves have rather odd but kind-of pretty flowers:

and that honey bees love them:

A good week

Sunday a week ago I had a very low-energy day, but the next day woke up full of beans.  It was my Sabbath, where one of my goals is to do what I feel like - I felt like going for a walk.  I was up to 60 minute walks (in terms of the incremental increases I'm doing for my concussion), so decided to explore part of Great North Rd.  In particular, I'd noticed that a walkway that goes across Oakley Creek appeared to be officially open, and I wanted to see "my" creek :-)

So nice to be in the cool green, even in this cool weather :-)

Praying the Ignatian Examen

Recently our church had two weeks of prayer and fasting, where we were encouraged to spend time in repentance and in doing things that helped us grow closer to God.

I've been working through a book called The Jesuit Guide to (Almost) Everything off and on for about two years now, and have been taken by the idea of doing the daily Examen the Jesuits do.  So I decided this was a good time to give it a go!

It's basically a set of five questions to help you reflect on your day.  The questions are summarised in the image below.

source

Foraging fun

On Monday, for my Sabbath 'fun thing', I went for a wander looking for edible plants.  I was particularly interested in nasturtiums and jasmine, both of which I'd recently learned could be used to make cordial.  I was also wanting to see if I could ID some giant daisies that I was hoping might be edible oxeye daisies.

Success on all fronts!

nasturtium flowers - about 2/3 of an ice cream container worth