By the time you read this, Labor Day will be here. Families with children will be in full swing getting ready for the return to school. And most of us will be trying to keep that list of what we need to do to prep for winter from nagging us as we try to squeeze a little more summer out of life.

I’ve been seeing folks again as they start coming back into May prepping for the beginning of fall. It has been good to hear what folk have been doing over the summer. The stories are as varied as the people themselves.

I myself did some traveling and camping, and saw some amazing things. In Lee, Massachusetts, I saw a double rainbow, both perfectly shaped. These were amazing. I swear there was a color in one of them that I had never really seen in a rainbow before. I think I have a better understanding of that indigo thing.

I was coming out of a grocery store well inside my head making sure I had gotten everything on my shopping list. I must have sensed people around stopping and so I did too and looked up. It is an interesting thing to see a sidewalk full of people slack jawed looking up at beauty. No talking, no photo snapping, even the cell phone conversations stopped; just silence and an overwhelming sense of appreciation of Nature. We were gathered in a spirit we had not intended. But gathered we were. As the clouds moved and the light shifted, the rainbows faded, people moved on but a bit slower and with broad blessed smiles on their faces. It was truly a moment of the sacred.

There are many sacred moments in life; I’ve experienced a few myself. But that one may be a first, a group of strangers all bustling with the tasks of life brought to a standstill in their tracks sharing in quiet, reverence and joy.

So this is a busy time for most of us. It is especially busy at May as we start a new year in RE. Here is to hoping that there will be those unexpected moments of the sacred. We cannot orchestrate them, only keep the room open in our lives to enjoy them when they happen. Welcome back.