Savoring the Unrushed

Now that I’m home from my trip to Italy, I’m back to my usual after-work dining habits. I grab a handful of crackers and a couple slices of cheese and call it an appetizer. 

Then I toss some olives, corn and avocado on a bowl full of greens {the kind that’s pre-washed and comes in a bag at the grocery store}. 

Sometimes I remember to take my salad outside to sit on my courtyard, but some nights I just stand at my kitchen counter and sort through the mail before heading out to yoga. 

Dinner for one just isn’t much of an affair for me.

But in Italy, dinner was a pleasurable slowly savored meal. 

Every night our retreat group gathered to eat together and three hours later we would say our good nights. 

No rush, no hurry, no haste.

Instead of crackers out of a bag with precut cheese slices, I sampled baked mounds of cheese on grilled vegetables or fresh arugula as my appetizer. 

I ate main courses of pasta or fish or chicken.

And instead of almost always declining dessert like I do at home, I lingered over every bite of tiramisu, coconut ice cream and peach sorbet.

Dessert was a work of art, where at our finale dinner, the staff created nitrogen frozen ice cream in front of us and served it with a delightful flourish.

Then after the dessert, came the coffee. I could barely keep my eyes open yet I didn’t want the evening to end.

Dinner in Italy was an invitation to relish, not race for the finish line.

I think there’s a secret in the savoring. That some of the Italians I met have already discovered.

Savoring this life. All of it. The good, the hard, the joy and the sorrow.

So often I want to rush out of what troubles, questions and stretches me, to hurry to the other side.

I find I want to say phew, that hard journey’s over and I’m now free to savor all the joy I can find in an easier, better place. 

But what if I’m missing the scent of sorrow and taste of tears that could offer me the depth of an experience of God that my soul is craving? 

What if lingering in the uncertainty without scurrying to get through it, offers the faith, grace and perseverance I seek?

What if I learned there's a cost and sacrifice that I didn't think would be required of me, but now even though it's hard, I realize how valuable it really is? 

This idea of savoring life's difficulties might seem like it doesn’t make sense. 

But I keep reminding myself {and maybe you need a reminder too?} that God’s way of thinking and working are so different from my own. 

“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the Lord. - Isaiah 55:8

And most baffling of all, his sense of time is not at all like mine. 


I wait for the Lord, my whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope. - Ps. 130:5

He can’t be hurried. He doesn’t mind waiting. And he invites me to join him. 

For it’s there that I see his tender loving care and I catch the nearest glimpse of how he sees me. 

So instead of rushing, I’m savoring. 

I get to keep praying {boldly} about God’s promises to me.

I’m relishing staying right here for a while longer, perched on the edge of my seat to see what God will do.

Here is where I’ll delight being in his presence and wait for him to show me what he desires for me, no matter how long it takes.  

{And maybe you'd like to join me in the wait for the promises God has made to you?}

In Italy, one of our retreat group dinners ran extra late and we all voted to skip the coffee and start shuttling back to the hotel. 

The servers, who were already at our table with coffeepots, returned to the kitchen and the chef — who inexplicably was also the shuttle driver — drove us back to the hotel, full of jokes despite the late hour. 

Now that I’m back home, I think about that magical dinner under the canopy of vines and lamplight on that sultry summer night. 

I only wish I’d had time for a last cup of coffee to finish off a perfectly unrushed evening.

But slowly savoring the memory of it is almost as good.

I'm linking up with my friends at Holley Gerth's place at Coffee for your Heart and with Bonnie Gray at the Faith Barista. Click the images for more posts from my blogger friends!