Hi everyone,

I love corn and I love corn fields.  I love corn fields especially this time of year as the stalks die and turn brown.  At first glance from the distance it looks like the stalks are dead and waiting to be cut down or plowed into the ground or whatever the heck farmers do with corn.

I was surprised as I went into the midst of the corn field to take pictures last Saturday during the community weekend to see that there were still corn husks on the stalks with corn in them.  I am still not sure why, maybe they missed them, maybe this is how seeds are made that are then packaged and sold to people like me for gardening.

But I was struck at the connection I made in my own spiritual journey.  When I approached Andre our archbishop in July for a sabbatical, I felt like the corn field, dying and at the end of my season.  I felt like I was ready to soon drop like the corn stalks.

But in the 11 weeks I have been here, I am seeing signs I am like the corn field.  In the midst of what I have lived and what I am living, it seems like a dying to something new.  I realize in the midst of what I am living, there is little surprises, little cobs or kernels of life and hope.  Certainly the harvest is not complete for me yet, but I am not ready either to be plowed into the ground.  And like the stalk, even though it is brown and dying, it is still rooted and not easy to pull out. I know the more faithful I am to being rooted, to tend my soil, the more likely I am to rise from this time of sabbatical to a new Jeff. Through my prayer, my friendships, my spiritual direction and mentoring, I am listening with both ears (pun intended) to the God of the harvest.  As corn depends on the farmer and nature to grow, so I depend on God to help me.

So until next time.......

Jeff