In my previous post I wrote a bit about the "whys" of the process of making youtube videos.  You should probably check that out for more information.  That said, the reasons  are pretty basic.  One is that they provide a creative outlet for me. They are a way to generate a dialogue with nature and with others who might be interested in the experience.  Also, this experience is a bit of an experiment into the possibilities for spiritual communities, who will increasingly find themselves in need of creative ways to reach out beyond their doors.

In addition to the previous post, you might be interested in the reasoning behind the initial project or my attempt at a method for sabbath walking, which underlies a lot of this work.  

However, what I would like to do in this post is share some videos, talk about my motivation to make them, and discuss a little about what I have learned from them.  I will be going in reverse chronology--most recent to least recent--as it may help to set where I am now before talking about where I have been.

Mount Watatic in Winter:
​This video is fairly typical of what I have been trying to do.  The format is fairly well established at this point.  It opens with a description of why I am hiking the trail and what I--or we--hope to see.  I also talk about my relationship with the walk.  In this case I am climbing my favorite mountain. Earlier hikes up Mount Watatic helped me to refine my thoughts on mindful walking.

Technically there are still problems.  While the music has improved a bit, I am still not a great musician.  There are compression issues and sound issues, too.  These are all problems that could be fixed with money...which I do not have.  I am using my phone for all the elements of recording.  I am using a fairly basic editing platform (Filmora) which is probably best suited for end-of-year high school slideshows.  The musician is free.  Also, I was not terribly satisfied with much of the footage I recorded initially.  It took quite a bit of work to tell this story.

Mount Kearsarge (South) in Winter:

This video was fun to make because I had the company of my wife Allison!  She did some recording of me and I could also record her.  The addition of people--including an anonymous fellow traveler--gives the video more motion to carry the story.  Also, while Watatic is important to me, one could argue that Kearsarge has more general importance. There were a lot of human (historical and artistic) resources for this video, which helped.  The view from Kearsarge is also one of the best in New England.  

By the time I got to this video I felt I had hit a wall technically.  The music needed to be updated. You will hear some of these same cuts in every video as we go back in time.  Why bother with music?  It helps to move the story along.  There are walks-and-talks that need a little something sometimes. There are moments when the view is the story and some framing is necessary. That said, it went together fairly quickly, which was nice. 

Tecumseh in Winter

This was a fun one.  I recorded it just a couple days before the Kearsarge hike so many of the points in that video are relevant here.  I had a friend with me--Andy Linscott--and we knocked out one of our favorite 4,000 footers.  Here we had the challenge of too many people, which made recording awkward at times.  For some reason editing was a BEAST.  You will note a couple spots where the sound gets clipped a bit.  I will say that after this video I tried to develop a method for layering the various elements together; completing one layer before starting the next.  The system is imperfect but having one was probably the adjustment that made the Kearsarge and Watatic edits go more smoothly. 

Finally, this marks--I think--the ideal length for one of these videos.  Keeping it Between 8 and 9 minutes tells the story before tedium sets in.  I feel this way about sermons, too.  However, it seems easier to stay tight when you have another hiker with you.  My solo climbs are all a bit longer.

Poet's Seat, Deerfield, MA

I had the most fun making this video.  It is different from the others in that the hike, itself is relatively unremarkable.  Instead I spent time talking about the poet Frederick Tuckerman. He is relevant to the walk.  Things don't always work out that way so I took advantage of the opportunity  You will note there is no music in this.  My one assignment from my son was to record voice overs instead of leaving long stretches of relatively silent (or scored) walking. Thankfully Tuckerman had enough poems to fill things in.  

Also, this was the first time I used a tripod mount for my phone.  This enabled me to film myself sitting and walking. It feels ridiculous while you are doing it.  However, it does help to give motion to the narrative.  This is a worthwhile practice...if you can avoid other people.

Starting Seeds and Hiking High Ledges

Before these videos--and you are welcome to look--my channel was mostly either panoramic views of mountains I climbed, sermons I wanted to share, or music from our various music ministries.  I think one can also find some of the earliest pandemic worship services hosted here before we got the church youtube page updated.  That was fun too.  The services were even necessary. I do feel, though, that the two videos below mark the beginning of something new. 

Like the pandemic worship videos, they are self-contained and internally consistent.  The goal is not to record something and say "look what is going on out there." Instead they say "look what is happening right here."  That is an important distinction between, say, an edited youtube worship video and a recording of a live-streamed worship video. The first has an immediacy.  The second is a document of something that happened in the past.  With these nature vids I am looking for immediacy. They differ from the pandemic material in that while they may be spiritual or even worshipful in some ways, they are not beholden to the traditional ideas behind those concepts.  They are meant to have their own patterns and pacing because both the media and the context are different.

I am putting these two together because they show some of the same challenges.  They are both too long,  The planting video in particular drags in the middle and is saved by my cat.  There are too many musical interludes in the hiking video and there is a sort of "reflection" bit that goes on too long at the end of both of them.  I think that somewhere in my subconscious was the form of a traditional worship service.  I wanted a "sermon" of some kind. 

​Still, I like them.  They are watchable and they represent an effort to do something creative and new.

Professional: This process obviously impacts my professional life. These skills are not what they taught me in seminary! Back then we were preparing for the 20th Century church. We even paused every once in a while to look back to the 19th Century with its battles both intellectual and literal.  I remember being vaguely discontented much of the time.  We were prepared for a world that was already over, but people didn't really believe it.

These are different 21st Century skills. There are plenty of areas for growth as we realize some of the "old ways" left the stage a while ago. In this case, I am learning about sound, picture, lighting, and technology. Also, I am learning different ways to put together a story. Since the life of a clergyperson has a lot to do with living into and interpreting stories--personal and scriptural--this is no small thing. We can become stagnant, after all. The new techniques and new lenses have influenced how I use the many remaining familiar tools of my trade.

​Congregational: This interest of mine is not new. I have had some kind of weblog for decades. I have made YouTube videos for years. Most of these were of sermons or the performance of various iterations of our music ministry. If you want to know who took this work seriously, just look at who is in the music vids. Otherwise it seemed that most people thought of this as a "hobby" that detracted from more sober activities.

Then March of 2020 occurred. On March 11 we decided to cancel in person church for March 15 of that year. Yep. That first online-only worship service was exactly three years ago today.

Things changed then, didn't they? Our little side-ministry gave us the ability as well as the confidence to pivot immediately. It took us minutes to form the plan that became the foundations--or the spine, or the trunk--of church life for the next 18 months. Within a couple days we had our first service "in the can" and ready to go live that Sunday morning.

We kept learning through that period, but we did not scramble. We didn't need to. Now we have moved back to "normal" and it is easy to forget what we did.

​However, we should not forget. It was our finest hour.

​These podcasts, videos, and blog posts are insurance against another time where we need them.  Yet they are more than that.  They are an imperfect window into what will come next. Increasingly, in fact, we will find that spiritual seekers will start their quest online rather than in person. These interactive technological tidbits are our front door.

Spiritual: Yes, I am doing this for spiritual reasons, too. Partly the needs are my own. However, I believe that the sharing of my own quest and questions helps to enrich a ministry. Each "platform" connects to the others in order to form a whole:

In person worship feeds our souls in real time and brings us together as a community in ways that are just not possible otherwise. Our services and events are designed to create both formal and informal settings to gather, to explore life's questions, and just to hang out without the demands of a busy world.

The Sabbath Walks Podcasts are designed to augment this experience. Most of them are under half an hour long. The goal is to put them on headphones or a speaker in order to connect once again to the spiritual element of life. We can take time for these topics while driving to work, or cleaning the house, or (even) hiking or walking around town.

While The Sabbath Walks YouTube videos are relatively new, this technology has always been a popular extra for us. We used to share the musical performances quite a bit in the before times. Most of them did double duty as hymns during the plague. We reached the peak with weekly worship. Now I am trying out some other topics and styles. Each is an attempt, though, to reach out and show how the spiritual interacts with our everyday existence.

Finally, we are steering our way toward workshops and walks. These will be--and have been--in person. There are many ways to worship and be worshipful. The "future church" whatever it may be, will need all the ways we can muster.

That is all for now. Feel free to explore the links to our online resources. In the next few days I will try to curate them a bit for another post here. I have no illusion as to how often they now are or ultimately will be visited. The various counters and measuring sticks tell me that even when they get "liked" in a Facebook post, they aren't always interacted with.
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They are there, however, for when you need them. Perhaps that isn't today. Just remember that they might help you out some time. The Sabbath Walk isn't just for Sunday, after all.

It really was snowing and raining for most of the time. However, the gray moodiness for this hike worked well. The trail along the long ridge undulated and the the snow shifted slightly under my feet. The rain and mist rising up from the warming snow was atmospheric, creating the sort of atmosphere that must have inspired a writer like Tuckerman. He preferred to keep to himself, after all. In 1860 when he published his first and only book--perhaps unimaginatively named "Poems"--he received a confused response. Many of his friends and acquaintances among the New England Literati didn't actually know he was a serious writer before their complimentary copies arrived. Tuckerman's book was only a mild commercial success. The response from his transcendentalist and romantic friends like RW Emerson, Jones Very and the Longfellows indicated that he had potential. However, only Nathaniel Hawthorn seems to have actually enjoyed it entirely.

That said, most saw moments of brilliance, particularly in his collection of sonnets. They praised his close observation of nature. Later he would be described as a writer of herbariums. His focus on the minutia of the natural world could--when his writing was on point--create an immersive effect prized by readers of the day.  His description of beans--in a poem ostensibly about coffee but really a story about some local characters--is typical of that work;
"The bean, the garden bean I sing--
Lima, mazagan, late and early
Bush, butter, black eye, pole and string
Esculent, annual, planted yearly"

He was also known to make up place names and allude to people he invented as if they were from the Bible or ancient literature.  The dude could create a world, which is something that--as a gamer and reader of speculative fiction--is something I can get behind.

That said, not all was happy in his life.  Most of his poetry is dark. His later poems--after the death of his wife--are even more gloomy.  As a young man he retreated out to Deerfield to be away from society and from the many connections cultivated by his family.  He was the brother of a famous botanist, Edward Tuckerman, and a composer, Samuel Tuckerman.  Henry Tuckerman--another writer--was his cousin. Far from Boston, apparently, he could be his romantic self. 

​In the early 20th Century, Tuckerman was rediscovered...or...in some ways discovered for the first time. But the discovery was brief. At least it got him a monument, right? Now you can find his work in some anthologies of poets from the era. However, the easiest way to read him is to get his one book for your e-reader. After all, it is free online.

There is more about Tuckerman and about the hike in the video below.  Also, I turned it into a podcast

​This sabbatical year is a good time to experiment with these things. In fact, we have already started. There are lay readers and guest preachers who change the sound and look of who we think a worship leader can be. We have experimented a little with different forms and rituals, too. Still..there is more to do.

As you know, I am a big fan of inclusive language, for example. During my time away from leading worship I will be looking at some of the words we still use in this place. How can we broaden the Lord’s Prayer so that everyone can see themselves in God? How can we find and sing hymns that speak to our own experience? How can we pray our prayers, responsive or otherwise in a way that reflects our own broad theology?

We must also ask how we include people whose busy lives do not fit the time or form of Sunday morning.  We are ​not going to “win” a battle against youth sports and family ski trips. People are busy.  They feel the pressures of the lives they–we–have fallen into and a change of lifestyle or schedule that frees up Sunday morning is too much to ask for a first step.  Our job is not to close doors through our perceived judgment and disappointment–and that is how many see it–but instead to open doors that they can find their way to enter. Therefore, we will be thinking once again about Dinner Church, Sabbath Walks, and Pub Theology.  We need to find a path for ourselves to understand that these are not “add-ons” we do as well as worship, but forms of worship themselves.

So... promised some links.  Here is this sermon in the form of a podcast.

This sermon worked of the previous one.  Here is the podcast for "The Church is Dying...and Being Reborn"

Hiked on February 14, 2023

This was a spontaneous hike.  Thursday's weather looked hideous as usual and I wanted to see the sun!  I decided, therefore, to hit Route 2 and head over to the High Ledges Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary on a Tuesday to catch the view.  I had been saving it for a perfect day...and this was pretty close.  The loop I chose was around 5 miles and featured an undulating landscape with a small mountain, a fire tower, a valley, and some hills.  The snow was fairly compact to start and then it got loose as the air warmed it up.  This made footing a bit of a challenge...and I brought out the micro spikes.

I could use the workout though.  There has been quite a bit going on.  The church is wrestling with some big questions.  Finally, I have a few weeks of sabbatical starting soon.  I will give thought to the church's questions then and add in a few of my own....

I say all this now because hikes like this are a series of small decisions.  This week on a Tuesday I decided to get up and get going.  I decided where to go.  There were all kinds of micro decisions that helped me to focus on the day. How would I get there? Would I do both the out-and-back to the tower or just the ledges themselves? Was this a good use of my time? How would I deal with the vagaries of weather?

Also, on this trip, I decided to do some more extensive filming.  It has been a while.  Many of you are aware of my interest in 21st century communication.  This weblog is part of that.  My podcasts are as well. For a long time I was into making youtube videos of sermons, church news, meditations, music and--during the plague--entire worship services.  Sometimes this meant collaboration.  At other times I worked on them by myself.  I got into it through a series of small decisions that brought me joy.  A series of small decisions may bring me back...or maybe they come to nothing.  It is too early to tell.

If we use the model of "Sabbath Walks" that I write and talk about here and elsewhere, all of these endeavors--these choices made and sometime pursued--fall into the category or "frame" of dialogue or creativity. On this hike, for example, the choice to film meant stopping and starting; recording sections of trail, talking to the camera while imagining future viewers, editing after getting home while re-living the excursion, and improvising a soundtrack.  I had to make decisions about equipment.  If I keep doing this there will be more decisions to make as some things may need replacing.

There are many little steps. After all to even get to the point of recording there was research. There were skills that could use some improvement through repetition.  That said, I am learning. While this decision may not lead to anything more, it just might...probably in surprising ways.  After all, nobody thought the skills I learned from my "hobby" would help hold online worship together during the early months of Covid.  Ultimately we found somebody more skilled. Of course, nobody thought that the skilled person we found would be a beloved former member of the D&D Club and the Snow Posse who had moved away.  Decisions keep on rippling out, don't they?

Anyway, I have included the video.  I think it is pretty good for a first attempt!  I also started a Sabbath Walks YouTube page that you can subscribe to to get notifications.  Just click on the video above and hit "subscribe." I may decide make more of these moving pictures.  We shall see.  Both I and the church are looking for ways to communicate.  Perhaps this is the way.

Here is to your decisions and dialogues.  I hope you have found something to bring the sabbath "walk" to life regardless of what it is or how you go about it.  Many blessings on your travels until next time.  I will see you out on the trail.

Hiked on February 2, 2023

Somewhere along the way of this project, it appears that at least a few people got the impression that I am particularly rugged or outdoorsy.  I am not of course. I am just a suburban dad transitioning to empty-nester with a bad back and sore knees.  I prefer a room and a bed--preferably my own--to a tent or sleeping platform. It is just that I find the Transcendent in nature, and that helps get me through the week.

I have been doing some workshops on Sabbath Walks.  I have been pitching them as "mindful walking" workshops because the word "sabbath" appears to make some folk uncomfortable.  Maybe it is because "sabbath" is a religion-word.  I like it better, though, "mindful" is way too broad.

Anyway, It is at these events--and the conversation around them--that I have noticed this disconnect.  People will come up me to say it is all very interesting...but they cannot go on a big hike.  Usually this is for physical reasons, which I totally get.  The only issue is that I am not talking about hiking.  I am talking about walking and even that has more to do with sitting.  The process is all about perspective and intention.  Are you paying attention to the world around you?  Are you letting your experience influence your understanding through reflecting on your context?  Then you are more than good.

Actually I haven't gone on many big hikes lately.  Work has gotten in the way.  So has the weather.  I do get out every week but all of my Sabbath Walks in 2023 have been in Massachusetts.  It is a good thing that we have so many great opportunities to get out in nature here!  Yes, it will be hard to cultivate "likes" in the same way when the views are less dramatic and the physical effort may also be.  That said, I have enjoyed immersing myself in the land close to home. 

Some of the best hikes lately have been repeats.  I trundled up Mount Watatic again and again.  The Graces and the Crow Hill Ledges still stand out.  One of the best walks I had was my usual four-mile round-trip stroll downtown...but at night.  This made all the difference. 

What I really want to talk to you about though, is the Assabet River Wildlife Refuge.

I have to say that ​I only recently really clued into its existence.  I went over there because the weather in New Hampshire was turning dangerous and I also had the need to find something more accessible for a group Sabbath Walk in the spring.  As I mentioned earlier, people think that these walks need to be challenging.  They do not.  I was--and am--searching for places where a person could walk a few feet to find a pretty place to sit. If they wished, they could move on for a more challenging workout...but they wouldn't have to.  When you are in a group you need both "easyish" and "hardish" options, so everybody gets what they want or need.

Now, on this hike  I had expected to see wildlife...and I did.  What was surprising, though, was the large amount of evidence of previous human habitation! Many of the trails were unusually wide and there were patches of old, cracked pavement in places.  Also, right where I parked was the foundation of an old tavern dating back to 1700.  However,  the most remarkable thing was the proliferation of immense concrete bunkers tucked away in the forest.  Each had a massive metal door that was barred and locked like some dystopian Hobbit hole.  Since my trip I heard from friends who had been in one.  The description seems to fit as they appear bigger on the inside. The one they visited was vast, cold, and oppressive.

Now, I later learned that there were 50 of these bunkers in the park.  Therein lies a story. First, of course, this land was wilderness. Then it was occupied by native Americans. Then, as Europeans came to this continent, it was a neighborhood for a long time.  That is where the old tavern came in. Later Henry David Thoreau would pass through to visit friends.  In fact, it stayed a agricultural community until 1942.

Then, as the Second World War heated up, the land was seized by eminent domain.  The people were moved. There were about 100 of them and they claim their compensation was 10 cents on the dollar. Their houses and the tavern were destroyed.  In their place were  those big bunkers, to store ammunition for Fort Devens.  After a while this annex was sealed off and abandoned. Finally, in 2005, it was opened to the public.  When I told this story in church and asked if anyone had been there only my eldest son raised his hand.  His high school cross-country team ran there.  Otherwise it is a new park to pretty much everyone I know.

As you walk along its trails today there is all this evidence of the past.  There are so many layers of humanity.  Some of those layers tell peaceful stories of life lived in the usual ways.  Others tell stories of fear, displacement, and violence. 

Now, the story of this refuge can be read as a parable. With any good parable we have choices to make about how we approach it and where we see ourselves in it. We can imagine ourselves in the position of The Native Americans, or the early colonists, or the neighborhood right before the war...all of them swept away.  Perhaps instead we could see with the eyes of those massive bunkers stubbornly demanding our place in the midst of the wilderness. They are solid, powerful, obnoxious even…but largely irrelevant to the world moving around them.

Or…we could see ourselves in the refuge, itself; adapting to our current context to serve current needs and connecting to the ecosystem that sustains us.  Whatever we choose--and at times we have probably felt ourselves in all these categories with more besides--this walk reminds us of the fullness of time and the power of creation to alter our understanding of what "truth" is. 

It is a thoughtful place for a walk, or a sit, or a stand. I spent a couple of hours there.  Then I went to a bar and wrote the beginnings of a sermon--here is the podcast version--with this story as its inspiration.  That is what is supposed to happen on a sabbath walk.  There should be a physical and mental challenge, then a new insight gained and a dialogue created.  We make sense of our reality through reflection, after all.

\My step counter says I walked 8.5 miles and there was much more to explore. I will definitely be back there soon.

Thoreau actually wrote a poem about travelling though this area.  The Old Marlborough Road exists as a road outside the preserve, but inside it continues as a perimeter road to the park.  I hiked it.  It was mostly quiet, with a few strollers and fat bikers.  Anyway...here is the poem. It isn't necessarily one of his best, but it helps to give life to the people who used to live there. Also the page describes the area a bit. In my sermon I said the refuge is in Sudbury and Wayland.  Of course it is actually in Sudbury and Maynard. After twenty years living here my geographical references are still those of a Mainer.  By way of reparation, the link is to a Maynard historical site.

Anyway, there are so many more games I could mention.  Some are dead.  Others I just wish I had time for.  There is a world of roleplaying games out there.  There are also "story games." There are also board games that feel like roleplaying games, too. Although those mean buying from Hasbro. 

Tabletop RPG's have been an important part of the lives of many people.  They have been a way to imagine another world.  Sometimes that world is dark and sometimes it isn't. Whatever or wherever it is, we can try on different identities and different lives, which is just what we need sometimes.

​My social algorithms are full of consultants talking very seriously about how "play" can increase productivity.  It probably does...I guess. What I know is that no one needs an uptight suit to tell them that these games can increase your creativity and, therefore, your happiness. So get out there and roll some dice!

Good luck finding something.  I am here to help.

Hiked On January 12, 2023

One of my mentors in ministry told us that on his sabbath days he would put his canoe on top of his truck and drive it through the middle of town. Sometimes he would take his canoe fishing, which is what everyone assumed he was doing. Sometimes he would just paddle around and go home. Sometimes, though, he would drive his canoe to Bangor for a bagel and a coffee with friends...and maybe a trip to the seminary library.

He told this story to convey four things. First, that the people of Maine are all pantheists at heart. As a Mainer born and raised I can confirm that this is true. Second, that people may not always respect your "off" time but will do their darndest to respect your sabbath time. Third--and this is where the canoe comes in--in a town of pantheists, a canoe on your truck means you are fishing...and fishing is sacred. Finally, the lesson was that you are best off leaving the parish come sabbath-time.  That way folks will not be able to get in touch with you as easily.  Also--more importantly--you will be away from the things that draw you back to your labors.

On Thursday I concluded that I could probably clear a few homiletical cobwebs as well as partially arrest my downward slide in health and fitness by taking a good walk. Maybe I could shock myself back into action! I put my heavy pack on and drove back out to the Leominster State Forest.  There I  continued the loop that I started a couple weeks earlier.  The total hike was about 3.8 miles and 600ish feet of total elevation.  So not a big climb.  However, I am out of practice. My knees hurt at the end.

The thing about this loop up the Crow Hill Ledges is that it features a short, steep  section at the very beginning. I guess it could be at the end instead if one takes the loop the other way. I like to climb up rather than climb down, though.  So I always choose the hard part first.

​After that things roll a bit along a long ledge.  There are obscured views through the tree trunks that wouldn't be there the rest of the year.  On this day, though, many of them were still socked in a bit by rain and fog.  The crisp, clean wintery air had been replaced by, well...shoulder season weather. It felt like early spring.
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