Then and Now

Since retiring I've discovered that some of the things we had around the house in NJ and didn't use much before, now we use them alot. Take the stereo system for instance. It was tucked away in the bottom of the armoir and hard to reach and operate, and so we just didn't use it. Now we use it every day. We even play it while we are away for the dog. (He seems to like the classical channel.) Similarly, it had been a very long time since we built a jigxaw puzzle because of the hassle of keeping it out on a table and then having to work around it and worrying about losing a piece to the dog's appetite. Now we always have one in the works. And then last night, we got out the Scrabble game (a fancy one that swivels on a lazy susan type of mechanism) and enjoyed playing it for a while. Also, I'm finding that the TV that I do watch now seems to be the kind where I want to learn something. Like yesterday, I watched an episode of "How They Do That" on the Discovery Channel that showed what happens to an egg from the time the chicken lays it, until the time it gets to your plate... fascinating stuff. I learned that eggs last on the shelf for only 35 days in the store; and that a chicken starts laying eggs after it's 19 weeks old, and stops producing edible eggs after 72 weeks. And that the average chicken lays about 300 eggs in it's lifetime. I'm reading much less theology and more historical biography and devotional material as well as the newspaper daily. And then, of course, there's the whole "name thing." I seem to be associating with more people who know me as Casey (my knickname as a youth) rather than as Paul. Although when I introduce myself to people I use Paul.

Dee got out the sewing machine again to make those valances (two sets) after being away from it, and she's enjoying cooking in the kitchen after having to rely on the crockpot so much in the last few years.

Also, I'm emailing friends more now. Yesterday I heard from my friend Susan Travis. she's putting together a mission trip to the Dominican Republic to plant trees with a christian organization called Floresta (check their website at http://www.floresta.org/ ). The trip will be August 2-9 this summer. They have space for 15 people. There are a few openings and she needed help contacting the local clergy there to let other churches know of the opportunity. It's going to be a great trip (Susan is very thorough in her planning. I've been on two trips planned by her; Kodiak, Alaska and Bacone College, Oklahoma) So, I sent her the info she needed to reach out to the wider Christian community there in NJ. If you'd like to know more about it, you can write her at stravis@att.net and she'll give you the scoop (up-to-date passports are necessary).

Conversely, there are some things we used all the time before, that we hardly use at all now. Like my laptop computer. I used it daily in NJ. Now, I don't use it much. And my cell phone... it barely rings at all now. And when it does ring now, it's about our life now ( appointments, friends and relatives) and not someone else's issue. I seldom take pictures now, whereas in NJ I would take a couple of dozen pictures a week. Singing was much more a part of my life then, and now, even though we go to the weekly lenten service and church on Sunday, singing much just doesn't happen. (I think they're missing out at the lenten service when they don't sing, and the Rotary Club guy said to me "We don't fine people and we don't sing." Maybe that's one of the reasons I enjoy learning the Qchord. It satisfies my hunger for music.

I'm working on a new song called "Go, My Children, with My Blessing." Here are the words of the first verse:

Go my children with God's blessing, never alone,
Waking sleeping, God is with you, you are His own.
In His love's baptismal river,
He has made you His forever.
Go, my children with God's blessing,
you are His own.

It's sung to a traditional Welsh melody that I remember as "All Through the Night." I can see where it could be used at the close of a time of worship as a hymn of "sending forth to serve" or musical benediction.