OOOOps

Yesterday's sunny day with no snow (I predicted) turned into a 6" winter storm that snarled traffic for hours.

Above you can see what our deck looked like later in the day after the "no snow" report I made in the morning.

We did manage to get to the lenten luncheon at the Presbyterian Church and enjoyed hearing about "Forgiving Grace" and visiting with out friend from Wilkinsburg Church, Marilyn Campbell. Hearing about "grace" reminded me of that distinction between grace and mercy... Grace is getting something that you do NOT deserve; and mercy is NOT getting something you DO deserve." Dee got to go to exercise at Contours and I got to work on the Qchord some. I sure find that relaxing and nurturing at the same time as I learn new songs and techniques.

Connecting the Dots

I'm learning that one of the meanings of "retirement" is that it's a time to play "dot-to-dot". Remember that pencil and paper game? Lately, Dee and I have been reconnecting some of the dots of our lives... see below.

Wow - today will make two sunny days in a row (and no snow!). God is good.

Yesterday (Thursday) was filled with exercise at Contours for Dee and the treadmill for me. I learned how they make coffee makers and pantyhose among other things during my treadmill efforts. Also, I now have new shoes and a new pedometer after going to the Robinson Town Center mall. We took an alternate route home (just to see where it came out) and ended up having to use the On Star direction helper to find our way home. God is good.

Last night we went to a Lenten Bible Study at the Cranberry Community Presbyterian Church. It was a video presentation on the topic of "Justification By Grace" (Atonement) as taught be R. C. Sproul. It was okay as we learned about "imputation" and the importance of Jesus' life as well as his death, but I'd hoped for more interaction by the ten people who showed up. At any rate, after the study was done, we visited with the pastor. That's when we got to connect some dots.

It seems that during 1973-76 he was a student at Pitt. I mentioned that those were the years I was the Associate Minister at FBC of Pittsburgh and tried to minister to some of the students at Pitt and CMU. He said that one of the things he remembered about that church was that it had a sign board out front that always had snappy sayings that made him think as he walked past it to go to class. Then, he quoted one he always remembered, "In pursuit of the sheepskin, don't take your eyes off the shepherd." It was nice of him to say that. That's when I learned that it's never to late to receive a compliment... even 35 years later. And some more dots got connected. Truly, God is good!

"Criteria for a satisfying leisure pursuit."

Here's a picture from earlier this morning...

One of the books I read before I retired was "How To Retire Wild, Healthy, and Free" by E Zelinski. I liked it so much I gave it to a friend who is considering retiring and his wife got one for her boss. Then the boss liked it so much that he got one for a friend. Anyway, there's a part of the book that describes "Criteria for a satisfying leisure pursuit." I figured that would be good to know, since I'm pursuing more leisure these days.

Here's what it says the "criteria" are:

1 Genuine interest in it

2. Challenging

3 Accomplishment even if just a part of it is completed

4. Many aspects and thus not boring

5. Helps develop some skill

6. Lose a sense of time in it

7 sense of self-development

8. Doesn't cost much

As I begin pursuing various avenues of leisure I think I'll use this criteria as a standard of measurement for the activity.

Today was a great day! I again shoveled the morning 3" of snow from the driveway and sidewalk. I visited the local Rotary Club today. (I used to belong to Rotary before I moved to NJ.) There were about 60 people there. They had a program about a group that took a mission trip to Hondorus to provide medical supplies and services to the people in a village there. They also taught the people about the importance of clean water and provided means for them to filter their water for safety. They're getting ready to send a group to Long Beach, MS in April as well.

I worked on a couple of new songs on the Qchord. Learned the chord progression for "Soon and Very Soon," and "Jesus, Name Above All Names." I especially like the chord progression in the latter one from C-Bb-Am-C7. Just listening to it gives me chills.

This evening Dee and I took our 4th ballroom dancing lesson at the Butler County Community College with our friend Kathy Geibel. (Her husband went skiing in Colorado for the week.) We began working on the one step (aka jitterbug) tonight. There are about 30 in the class. It went well.

As I think about some of these "leisure pursuits", I realize they do meet the criteria set out above. GREAT!

A Walk Back in Time - reconnecting with my past

Today I reconnected with fellow Baptists at the Pittsburgh Baptist Association's monthly meeting. (Actually they meet bi-monthly). Although there was only a handful of people there, I was glad I went. I listened as they shared various frustrations of doing ministry in today's world. I discovered that though there are about 55 ABC affiliated churches in the Pittsburgh area, many of them are small and therefore have pastors who are bi-vocational and who have completed the "Christian Leadership Institute" program that offers basic courses to prepare people to serve in these smaller churches. And since the people are "bi-vocational," they are not always available for Association Clergy meetings.

As the people there shared I realized how truly blessed I've been to be able to get a theological education and serve in full time ministry. There are many people who want to do ministry, but can't afford the time or cost necessary for a seminary education. I realized too, that when I served churches in Pittsburgh many of my fellow pastors were also seminary trained. Not so today. Things are quite different now in many ways. We have truly been blessed.

It was good to hear that there is a group that is trying to find ways to strengthen the fellowship needs of local pastors and that they'll be working on that for the near future. I really enjoyed the fellowship I had with the pastors of the West Association in New Jersey. Though there were only 17 churches in our association, there were always a dozen or so in attendance at the monthly meetings. It met a real spiritual and collegial need for those who attended, as well as connecting us with the wider denomination.

Today's meeting was at the First Baptist Church of Coraopolis. That church is only about 4 miles from the first church I served out of seminary, the Mooncrest Community Baptist Church. It was nice to be back in that area after being away for over 35 years.

Dee and I had taken a ride back to our first church about a month ago on a weekday. It was like a walk back in time as we drove around the church building (which is now painted blue for some reason), and drove by the first house we lived in as newly weds. Dee noticed the tree in the front yard and reminded me of the day her father brought the tree down from Butler and planted it for us. My that tree has grown... Later that same day we drove past the house where one of the members used to live and wondered if they still lived there. We stopped and sure enough Betty Werme was home. When I knocked on the door, she turned, looked out through the screen door and said, "Well, look who's here." Then she called to Chuck (her husband), he came to the kitchen and they invited us in. We spent the next 30 minutes getting caught up on what had happened to all the people we knew so long ago. It was again like a walk back in time.

I've been continuing to practice the Q-chord. http://www.qchord.net/ Today I became familiar with the chord progression of 4 songs. "Thank you Lord; The Old Rugged Cross; Thy Word; and We Are One in the Spirit." The first one is a song I used to sing during my teen years every Sunday night at the close of the evening service. I haven't sung it for decades now. Lately I was thinking about that song and so it was nice it was in the book I have of old songs of the church.

Here are the words: "Thank you lord for saving my soul. Thank you Lord for making me whole. Thank you lord for giving to me, Thy great salvation so rich and free."

Today I've been counting my blessings - a good thing to do on occasion.

Puzzles We've Built This Month

Here are photos of the two puzzles we built during February '08.

They have 750 and 500 pieces respectively.

"Those who danced were thought to be quite insane by those who could not hear the music."

The above quote by Angela Monet is one of my favorite quotes. I suppose because Dee and I continue our dance lessons, but also because it also describes the mystery of "faith" and it's seeming utter nonsense to those who don't have it.

Yesterday we were Presbyterians for a day. We found the service meaningful as they welcomed 10 new members into their midst and baptized a young woman in her 20s. What confused me about this "Presbyterian way" of doing baptism, is that although I saw a bowl of water up front, I never did see the minister touch it or use it. Hum? Maybe I blinked. At any rate, the people were very friendly after the service in the fellowship hour and the sermon spoke to our human desire for "quick fixes" and noted that God is in it for the long haul, and therefore doesn't do "quick fixes." The preacher used the story from John 4 (Woman at the Well) as his basic text.

Later in the day I watched a video called "Planet Earth" (I only watched the first disc of the 5 disc set.) It was produced by the BBC and has fantastic photography. I saw rare footage of snow leopards as well as piranha fish and even panda bears. (Did you know that a baby panda is blind for the first 3 months of it's life? The five set DVDs cost about $52, so I opted for getting them from the local library (now that I'm on a fixed income.) I highly recommend viewing them at your leisure.

I also am find myself watching two programs I've never seen before. They are "How Do they Do That? and "How It's Made." Both are on Discovery Channel. Usually I watch them while I'm doing my workout on the treadmill every other day. (I do that while Dee goes to "Contours" for her workout with other ladies... It's a kind of "Curves" franchise.) Also, when the weather cooperates, I take Bonz (our 5 year old springer spaniel) out for a walk around the block. (Our block is about a half mile in distance.) Our groomer said that the more I walk the dog, the less I'd need to have his nails clipped. The grinding action on the cement wears them down automatically. Since retiring, I've gotten into the habit of wearing a pedometer and strive to walk 10,000 steps a day. (My nurse friend, Donna Thomas, alerted me to this regimen.)

I recieved an emai from Kerri today that said she'd received more pictures from the wedding reception and has added them to her website. If you'd like to see them you can follow this link. http://kpjwedding.googlepages.com/reception Take care, and "listen to the music..."

It's Been 8 Weeks

It's hard to believe it's been 8 weeks since my retirement began. The first four weeks weree occupied with final preparations for our daughter, Kerri's wedding to Patrick Julian on January 26th. (see link http://kpjwedding.googlepages.com/home ) for some of the pictures of the event. And click here to see some of the showers and gatherings before the event http://www.kerriandpatrick.com/ . It was a glorious day! One we'll never forget. I was especially pleased to see everyone so happy and having a good time.

Since then Dee and I have been settling in to our new home in Mars, PA. Each day seems to present new opportunities to do things together and to learn something new. I find I'm on several "learning curves" at the same time. I'm learning to do crossword puzzles and to read the daily newspaper every morning. I'm learning to do the daily JUMBLES puzzle online where you are timed as you unscramble the words. I'm learning to read biographies (My first one is Benjamin Franklin by Isaacson.)

I've started practicing with the Q-chord again. I'm trying to develop a little repetoire of songs I can play with out relying on the sheet music too much. I think I have "Give me That Old Time Religion" and "Go Tell It on the Mountain" down pretty well. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. Who knows, maybe I'll be able to use this some day. Right now it's for my own amazement and amusement.

We're doing jigsaw puzzles again after a long long break from doing them many years ago. We completed the one of Pittsburgh that we received at the Goofy Gift party at Seaview. It had interlocking pieces and held together nicely. It only took 1 month to complete the 750 pieces. Now we're working on one called "The Global Puzzle" which is a map of the earth that identifies all 193 countries and the pieces are cut to the shapes of the countries and states. I've learned a lot about geography by working on it. Interestingly it's not "interlocking pieces" and so tends to be much more fragile and when you bump or touch a piece you have in place, it gets outa wack and messes up the piece next to it. The pieces are inter-related but not interlocking. Much like life on the real planet earth.

On Thursday we went to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History and the Carnegie Museum of Art. (The buildings are connected.) We took their daily tour led by a docent who explained some of the architecture from around the world in the Hall of Arcitecture and many of the pieces of art. Dee and I thoroughly enjoyed it. We hadn't done anything like that in decades. And now that we became members we can go back again and again for free. (Their little cafe served great lunches too.)

Weve been taking ballroom dancing lessons at the Butler County Community College on Wednesday nights. It's a group lesson and we've been learning the East Coast Swing (or triple step as it's known). Great fun! We're finding out that we have to practice between lessons so the steps and moves become second nature. Went to a couple of Saturday night dances at the dance studio of the instructor in Butler - nice events and great for meeting new people.

Each Sunday we attend a different church. We've been Methodists, Presbyterians and Baptists for a day. We thought we'd found a church we would attend, but after being there 5 times over several months and not receiving any contact (note, phone call, anything) we decided to continue our search. We have been enjoying the Lenten Luncheons at the local Presbyterian church. They have area pastors speaking after the luncheon in the fellowship hall. We're getting to know some of the people there by sight and name although we haven't been there to worship on a Sunday.

We've never had to search for a church before, so this is something new - another learning curve, I guess. It's interesting the things you notice and what stands out in your mind after you leave a church you've just been to for the first time. You notice the types of and quality of music, the songs that are sung, the instruments that are used, the sermon and whether it's practical, theological, denominational, and the way the members interact with each other. You hear things that people say to each other and about their church off-handedly. You notice the building's state of repair or the parking lot's grit and gravel. You notice the programs they seem to be offering and the ages of the people there. You listen for what they say about Jesus (if they mention Him at all) and wonder how you'd fit in there and how God would or could use you insrvice to the Kingdom there. And how God would nurture your spirit there. You think too about how far away it is, the time of the service... and how involved you think you might become... lots to consider.

As I say, I'm involved in lots of learning curves - what an adventure!

From a book I've been reading on retirement, the author says that while transitioning into retirement, one should consider the 7 Ps. They are: Purpose - it gives focus Planning - It gives direction and goals Place - Have a destination each day Positive Attitude - this influences your actions Preparation - Try things before any long term committment Practice - for motivation and persistence Patience - for the long haul

He says it's important above all to BE FLEXIBLE!