Sunday, July 1, 2012

First Day

Today is the first day of my retirement--and the first day of the rest of my life, as they say.  I am deeply grateful to God for the long and energetic life of activity for the Order and Church that I have had.  I hope now for as many good years "in the sunset" as God will give me.

In the Phoenix newspaper this morning, there was a quote from British author L.P. Hartley (1895-1972):  “The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”  That represents one of my great challenges now.  With my retirement, I leave a place I will not go back to again.  From now on, things will be done differently there by those who have succeeded me.  In some sense, it is now a foreign country to me.  I love it none the less. But I also will be doing things differently in my new life-space.  Because I spent a lot of time preparing to cross the retirement frontier, the place where I now find myself already feels like home.  My regrets are few as I glance back, my expectations high as I go forward.  To those who helped me decide and "pack" I am also very grateful.


All my life I have been exploring, in God, the "meaning of me."  I think it will become even clearer now.  I hope you will see that for yourself to in the daily blogging that I will resume.