There's less than a week left. My sabbatical of three months is almost over. After Labor Day I am back to work. I started planning and hoping for this time two or three years ago, and I've done it, and it's almost over. When this summer started I remembered a clip from the television show, Seinfeld, where George Costanza is getting three months paid off of work, and he proclaims it the summer of George. This must be my summer of Jason if there ever was one, I thought.

The summer of Jason only has a few days left, and I'm taking account of the time. Was it all I hoped it would be? Unequivocally yes. My spiritual director said I would continue to mine this experience for months and years to come, and I think she's right. I'm still unpacking in my mind all that has happened in these three months. I still can't believe I've done some of the things I've done. I rode a bike through Rome; I prayed with monks in the desert of California; I looked into the dark waters of Loch Ness; I put in 200 miles on a bike across Missouri with my Dad. I could fill up several pages mentioning the things I'm so thankful to have experienced in this time. It's almost dreamlike in my mind to consider these things all happened within a summer.

I do miss work, though. Over the last couple of weeks there's been an ache to return to normal life. I told a friend that this time has been good, but I'm ready to get back in the game. I miss the routine of normal life, the structure and ordering it gives. I miss being productive. At the start of the summer I mentioned I was embracing a time of being silent instead of preaching every Sunday; now I feel like I have something to say and I'm ready to say it.

If I was really rich--I've often said--I would travel all the time, jumping from country to country. I think that's still true, but right now I want to enjoy home life. I don't want to hop around the globe; I want to be planted right here for awhile. I've been on the road for 48 days this summer, and the travel has been great, but I'm tired, too. I'm ready to be around home and to enjoy work and the gifts of daily living and the quiet comforts of home. The summer of Jason was all that I wanted it to be; it was a luxurious gift from my church and the Lilly Endowment. Every day is a gift, though, in the life of Jason, and I'm ready to keep enjoying it.