East Pass

 

To whom it may concern: good morning! No particular message or reason to blog and post now, which I'm doing less these days - - no longer necessarily daily, but "doing less" for no particular reason except catering to my advancing ancient age: instead of doing things as a commitment or self-imposed sense of "obligation," I'm more into doing what I DWP, nomesane? 

Anyway, yesterday was a very good day. One, with Furo80 I lost five pounds that was making me feel sluggish, and I now feel like my old self. And I do mean "old self," not 42 years old as I used to think of myself, and when I retired from the US Navy; but 89&c and enjoying it. One of the best parts is looking to my left, down at St Andrews Bay and across the Bay, over Shell Island into the Gulf of Mexico, it's cloudy but clear at the moment. And a lovely Florida winter day, 69° and wind West 9 mph, gusts to 16 mph. 

Another thing that made yesterday so great was being present at HNES nine o'clock chapel service when a dearest friend, yea friend unto beloved family member, was honored. We go way back, experienced "The Troubles" together, and cling to the same past: no forgetting, no forgiving. 

Then last evening, Lessons & Carols at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church. Linda and I don't drive at night any more, except two Times a year: to L&C in early December, and on December 24 to the four o'clock Christmas Eve service of Holy Commotion, which gets wilder and better each year because every year is worse than ever. Both those church events end after dark, but we carefully drive straight home, and it's all good so far. 

My first L&C in many years, maybe more than forty years, sitting as a member of the lay congregation instead of as participating clergy. It feels strange, odd, out of place, but I'm getting used to it - - or at least, I'm working toward being used to it. An eight-day retreat "Credo" for Episcopal clergy that I participated in the Spring of 2008 was designed for retiring clergy, and their message was about the difficulty and stress, after all the years, of getting used to no longer being needed, and Time to stand down. So, it's no sob story, just the facts, ma'am. It's Time in the Wilderness with Moses, and a trusted friend told me that the farther I travel into that Wilderness, the better off I will be in the long term. 

As part of it, I need to separate a bit more, at least temporarily. Couple of other Episcopal parishes this side of The Bridge; TEC is working toward full communion with the UMC, two parishes close enough; also with one of the Presbyterian denominations; TEC is always but sans noticeable progress working toward closer relationship with the Roman Catholic Church. For reasons of our cutting edge social course, the Greek Orthodox Church seems to have given up on any sort of "union" with TEC. We have full communion with ELCA, and having attended a Lutheran theological seminary I'd like to try being involved with them, but their parish here recently closed. So, breaking free into "full retirement" is an emotional struggle that's part of the Wilderness experience. Last evening, blaming it on the Furo80, I sat in one of the folding chairs at the back, which was somewhat helpful to me.

Of course, I have my communion box that the folks at Mount Calvary Parish in Pennsylvania gave me when I was ordained nearly forty-two years ago, so theoretically I could go outside and "say Mass" on 7H porch, but it is counter to Episcopal Church practice for a priest to do that alone, so no. As from COVID, there's lots of Sunday morning services being "televised" via Facebook, that's an option. Or just sit here and sulk, eh? 

The other great thing about yesterday was finding out that our Interim Rector, whom I have grown very fond of and hopeful about, has accepted a Call to a parish that seems to fill his every need; so I'm exceeding happy for him, while still waiting to see what's next at HNEC. It will be good, I'm reasonably confident. 

No longer linking all my +Time blog posts on Facebook, and this one will not be linked except for an hour or so this morning, but I'm keeping faith with myself and with several older relationships who count on staying in touch with me.

Life is Good.

Next step today: taking a Christmas Tree and setting it up in Malinda's room at Pruitt. 

RSF&PTL

T89&c

pic: 1913 Bay County map. You can see the old East Pass, which has been open intermittently over the years, but now is closed, filled in, as I recall, to guard against the Exxon Oil Spill of several years ago.