Sabbaticals are about refreshment and reflection rather than recreation. I can recommend one, and mine has been productive: eight panels of the Stations of the Cross. They will be cast thanks to an Arts Council grant and then go on a two-year tour, before going on permanent display at Burton Agnes Hall. There is also to be a video about its production, a Grove booklet about Stations of the Cross and how I arrived at mine, and a brochure. So it has been a busy time!

I recommend everyone to set aside time and, therefore, money (or raise funds for it). That is, to step down from the daily grind and do something to enhance your work or make more opportunities for when you return. There's nothing like taking on a new dimension. It is a fallow period "at work" but a time when the person - like the land - regenerates himself or herself.

There is a story of a vicar in a village and looking over a hedge to admire a cottage garden. He congratulates the owner/gardener on his achievement: "Look what a marvellous job you and God have made of his creation". "Age" was the reply, "thar should o' seen it when God 'ad it to 'issen". God works in hidden and mysterious ways, and the parables in the Bible compare our life, death and achievement to the farming cycle and Harvest (vide the Parable of the Sower in Matthew and Mark). Fallow rests the land for further production (a Sabbath rest every seven years, hence sabbatical). This is distinct from the terrible crime of set aside which is so artificially controlled and often results in the destruction of nests etc, with the whole being soaked in weedkiller so that nothing natural survives. Would that set aside was farmed as a low-yield natural food crop for storage against shortage in case of a climatic disaster or otherwise.

We need to encourage regeneration in our own lives and in our spirituality, so that our outlook on life and on other people is refreshed and lifted to better things. So allowing God's seed, his word in and through Christ to prosper in our lives and so take root in the lives of others. It's rather like wild flower seeds etc in the headlands being left for the almost extinct English grey partridge, to use a modern farming practice! Prosper your handiwork and spirit!

The magazine of the parishes of Boltby, Borrowby, Cowesby, Felixkirk, Kepwick, Kirby Knowle, Knayton, Leake & "The Siltons". Also circulated in Upsall, Thirlby & Sutton-under-Whitestonecliffe.
The Vicar in charge is Rev.Toddy Hoare,
The Vicarage, Moor Road, Knayton, THIRSK, YO7 4AZ Tel: 01845 537277
Contributions always welcome, deadline 2nd Monday in the month
Editor Curtiss Cottage, South Kilvington, Thirsk 01845 522739