You might have noticed that the pause button has been pushed – with few posts on this site over past few weeks. This is because I have started a short term parish role, in Rotorua. Not that I am there yet – like you, perhaps, there is a sense of yes, but not quite yet, as the world around us changes again, and we adjust to shifts in lockdown levels.

As the world around us shifts, and before rushing headlong into life as it was, it could be useful to take another kind of pause. Make a cup of coffee, find a seat in the sun, grab your journal or a piece of paper, and take a reflective pause…

Ask yourself some questions:

• What did I most miss over the weeks of lockdown?
• What were the gifts & blessings of that time?
• What did lockdown teach me about myself and how to live?
• What would I like to take into the future?
• What am I going to leave behind?

For me, there is a sense of gratitude for this experience. It has been a time of slow spaciousness where I have found myself content in the small things of life: toadstools in the garden, hands in the soil, at work in the kitchen. It has shown me that I need far less than I thought: fewer possessions, fewer people, fewer activities; and in that less of everything, there has been peace and connectedness. It has, for me, been a blessing.

It will be a challenge to go back into the world of busy-ness and muchness, but I intend to carry the sense of pause with me. For you, the experience may well have been very different, but I hope that it has brought new learnings and a greater embrace of life.

So I invite you to take that pause, pour the coffee, sit in the sun, and ponder… how have these days been for you? And if you wish, leave a comment: share your discoveries, your struggles and your joys.

However this time has been, I wish each of you the ongoing blessings of the sacred, and the willingness to simply pause.