A “Restful” Winter Meeting is Planned

Dr. Kirk Byron Jones will speak at the Parents’ Association winter meeting in February. In keeping with our theme this year – creating balance in busy lives – Dr. Jones will host a discussion entitled: “The Power of Rest: Without the Rest There is No Music.”

A fellow Milton parent, Dr. Jones currently teaches ethics and preaching at Andover Newton Theological School, and serves as guest preacher and teacher at churches, schools and conferences throughout the United States.

In a recent book, Addicted to Hurry: Spiritual Strategies for Slowing Down, Dr. Jones explores the many things we give up when we hurry:

“We suffer many unnecessary sacrifices as a result of our addiction to speed, our speed idolatry. On the scale of life’s most important matters, some of these are minor, such as running off and forgetting your freshly brewed tea on the kitchen counter. (This is actually a second concession to speed. The first is not observing the time to savor your morning brew at home.) Some matters are not minor. I have in mind seven serious unnecessary sacrifices because of our addiction to speed: patience, judgment, depth, joy, dialogue, personhood and spirituality.”

In the book, he takes his readers on a journey and tries to help them come to a place where they can live at a “savoring pace.”

“To live the savoring pace is to commit oneself to seeing more clearly. This means seeing slowly, reflectively, and gratefully, and seeing in these ways on purpose. It stands to reason that a lifelong, socially conditioned way of underseeing and mis-seeing is not going to change overnight. It will take vigilant effort on your part. Be encouraged. Seeing clearly, over and over again for the first time, is worth the effort. It is worth the effort to have eyes that, in the words of the poet Denise Levertov, “dig and burrow into the world.”

Dr. Jones will speak at 7:30 p.m. in Straus Library on Thursday, February 17, and all are invited to attend.

We hope you are able to savor the holiday time with family and friends and we’ll look forward to seeing you in the new year!

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