One of the nice things about being fully retired is that, on a particular day, if I genuinely do not feel like doing anything, I don't. There are all sorts of things I would like to do. I am innately curious and have lots of topics where I would like to learn more things, often many more things. It has been fun and somewhat discouraging of discovering all the areas where I have less than comprehensive knowledge about some topic. Often, I find that I am not as smart as I thought - and this is both humbling and challenging. But nearly fifty years of working with deadlines and specific responsibilities are pretty much gone. There are exceptions, to be sure, but the avalanche of having to work continuously on projects seems to be over. Those grinds happened far too much for comfort - and certainly far too much for a balanced life.
This stage of my life allows me to decide what I want to do, what I want to learn. and are there any dreams that I still have capable of being realized. I am getting a little realistic here. No longer do I want to be tall - well, I realize that, for me, this can only happen with shoe lifts, so I might need to seek some other specific goals. I would still like to be tall but realize this needs to be tempered or even shortened. (no pun intended)
It appears that the time I have spent means that I should plan to continue at it as a priest. But there are still many possible variations. I often think about seeking a political job. Having seen the "output" from many politicians, I think to myself, "I could do that." Heck, I think to myself, "I could do so much better than that!" So many politicians today are just a disgrace. It would be hard not to be better than a number of them. For a number of years, I considered applying to be a contestant on Jeopardy. Sadly, I have now concluded that I would not win at Jeopardy. There are certain areas of life where I am just clueless, other areas where I know a lot, but the Jeopardy contestants have both breadth and depth of knowledge. Acknowledging this reality, I morphed over to becoming a host of Jeopardy. I'm a prodigious researcher. I can be charming most of the time - and I could direct the flow of the program. But then I realized that Ken Jennings is simply phenomenal as one of the two permanent hosts. I would never be better than Ken, so will limit my Jeopardy involvement to respecting his work each night.
By the meandering in the above paragraphs, you may reasonably conclude that I'm not going to find a calling other than priesthood. I'm fine with that, but you can always explore additional things to do. That is part of the fun of retirement!
I really want to have fun during my retirement. Darn it, I deserve to have some fun - so will keep looking at it.
I feel happy that I'm writing in this blog again. I was somewhat despondent and discombobulated for lots of reasons and feel better right now.
Stress is not my friend. I will go to great lengths to avoid situations or people that add to my stress. I cannot deal with it without some negative impact. I have given myself permission not to take it or do it if I find it uncalled for. To me, that is elementary fairness and justice. I used to just swallow these things, but ain't going to do that any more. It is just not worth it. I recognize my limitations.
So will keep whacking away in this blog. The posts will deal mainly with the questions, issues, and problems that I am dealing with - and hope that they will be of interest to you. I am a voracious reader and scoop up knowledge quickly. Somehow, I believe and hope that God enters into the spaces between these posts. I believe that my faith has grown since retirement. I certainly have become (overall, but not exclusively!) a more spiritual and even relaxed person, but I have a long way to go. I went through decades of unrelenting stress. Did not recognize this while I was going through it. Enough of that. (Did I mention that I just want to have fun? Hope so).
I invite you to be with me on my journey.
(This is my self-description of me trying to relax- I don't like to fish - I don't like to eat fish - I won't!)
Pray for Pope Francis - I imagine his stress and just shudder:
