Retirement: First Day

Today is the first day of my retirement and it happens to fall on a Sunday. It seemed so strange to get up so leisurely and move so slowly. Usually I spend a couple of hours meditating and listening for a sermon, then it is hurry into the shower and get to church, usually about 7:00 AM to get set up for the 8:00 AM Eucharist. Not today however. Even when I start at the church of the Holy Spirit next Sunday it will still be more leisurely since their one service is at 10:00 AM.

Today I am going to San Pablo for Mass and that is at 10:00 AM. It will be terrific to go there after having served there for so long, also the Mass said in Spanish is so beautiful. After church I have a lunch meeting with the Sr. Warden, Emmy Davis and her husband Doug, with whom I have been friends for many years. We will meet a Chompies and begin to talk about the structure of my work at Holy Spirit. I will begin there next Sunday and probably meet with their vestry soon and work out a Letter of Agreement.

After lunch with the Davises I will come home and get ready for the Super Bowl, I will begin to fix supper, which will be a ground beef pie made with phyllo dough crust, I am also going to fry up some zucchini in the skillet for a veggie treat.
I will be by myself for the game and that is fine. Mike and Leah are going to a party with some of their friends
Well I am going to save this and come back to it later after I get back from church and lunch.

Monday Morning:
I didn't write any more on this entry yesterday, since I was a little later getting home from the lunch meeting, so I'll add some now and post it.

Mass at San Pablo was a thrill. It was FILLED with at least 350 people, a couple of whom had been there when I was there and they remembered me. The Mass was a chaotic as it always was. Anglos would go nuts with all the noise during the Mass--children making noise, running all around, chasing each other up and down the center, laughing, just being children. Mexican people don't parent their children in church like we do. They just let them run around and play. It doesn't bother the parents or the priest at all. It used to just drive me crazy, but I just had to learn that it is a cultural thing and you can't change it. They had a mariachi group provide the music and it was great fun.

I had a great meeting with the Davises and I am really looking forward to my time at Holy Spirit. We talked for a long time and when I got home I just didn't feel like fixing a big dinner so I snacked all during the game. And what a game it was. the Cardinals played a great game, but I know that is no consolation.

Today I go back to cardiac rehab after a week off. It could be a hard work out. And I need to get back onto a sensible eating pattern. Between eating a lot of Mexican food at the clergy conference and eating a lot of high calorie and high sodium foods over the weekend, I NEED TO REPENT.

I must add how much I enjoyed the Super Bowl alone. These last few days I was hoping no one invited me to a Super Bowl Party, and they didn't. It isn't that I am anti-social, or don't enjoy being with other people, I think I had just been in large groups so much during the last week, with the clergy conference Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and then the events over the weekend, all of which I truly enjoyed; I was just looking forward to watching the game, listening to the commentary of the people on TV and just being alone. It sometimes amazes me how I have come to enjoy being alone sometimes.

I am giving some thought to what else I might do with the time I have and the new freedom of being retired. I want to get back to being with the Hispanic and perhaps the migrant community somehow. There are a lot of possibilities. That is why I wanted to go to church yesterday at San Pablo. I plan to have lunch with the priest at San Pablo soon. And I want to spend some time with the priest in Douglas who shared his work with migrants with us at the clergy conference, and I will be meeting soon with the leaders from Valley Interfaith, the local community organization of churches that does a lot with the local Hispanic community. And, of course there are the opportunities with the church in Ecuador, whom I also need to contact soon. Who knows what I might do? I know God does and I am trying to listen . Maybe that is why I like some alone time, so I can listen to Him/Her.

Adios for now,
Glenn+