I flew into Charlotte last Friday morning. The ever-lovely Seth Dresser picked me up for a surprise visit to a blueberry field in Concord, NC. We spent all morning sitting under bushes of blueberries, our white 1-pound buckets slowly filling to the brim, the smells and feel of a coming storm all around. Peace. Calm. Just me, a bucket and bushes of blueberries.
I'd been in Aliquippa for two weeks - an intense and challenging two weeks of travel, new faces, old faces, planning, re-planning, dissolving plans and starting new ones. Students pouring themselves into writing, students wanting nothing to do with it. Students coming to you - excited for the day, students wanting to shut the world out for fear of having to face their home lives again...for fear of letting someone else in.
So to be sitting quietly under a blueberry bush, against the contrast of my July whirlwind - against my scattered thoughts, felt strange and foreign. I have lots of things to be planning! Will my recording dates work out? Will my students be ready to record their words next week? The final program is in two weeks?!?! My head was swimming, but my body was tired. My brain needed rest. My worries had the power to overwhelm me, but I also had the power to tell them no. Power found in simply sitting under a blueberry bush and allowing myself to rest. Physical rest. Mental rest. Rest in the knowledge that things work out, one way or another. In the knowledge that this project is not about me in all of my perfectionist tendencies, but about leading these children the best I know how in opening their eyes to a new creative outlet.
The peace of Christ is ever present. The peace of Christ does not hide itself. The peace of Christ is to be sought after.
So, for crying out loud, go sit under a blueberry bush.
