Monday, November 28th, 2016; --- first full day of being retired. I need to process that and figure out what it means. I "retired" once back in 2001 after being in the Air Force for thirty two years. At the time Ms. Kate and I were buying a new home and moving boxes in to get our new home set up. We spent a lot of our time out in the yard, arguing about what plant went where and what flower bed was going where. Her ideas and my ideas were miles apart. The neighbors probably wondered what kind of lunatics were moving in. Just FYI, it was the most we had ever argued about anything so it might as well be about flowerbeds. But that was fifteen years ago and the yard is "in".

That first retirement lasted not quite a year and I got restless and had to do something with my mind, so I began the United Church of Christ Licensed Ministry training program through attending classes and mentoring. Then in 2004, I began as the pastor at the two United Church of Christ churches in Ft. Branch, Indiana, where I have been for the past twelve and a half years. It has been the most mentally and spiritually satisfying thing I have ever done in my life, and I feel so privileged to have been able to do it. But --- now I'm older (72) and knew that it was time to retire from that career too. So --- here I am, sitting in the sunporch, watching a squirrel try to climb a wet pole, and wondering what to do next.

 I had a lot of people yesterday ask the same question I ask of others, "What are you going to do now?" The first thing Ms. Kate asked me this morning was "What are you going to do today?" Yesterday afternoon, after we got home and the girls had all headed back to their homes, we sat there in the family room and listened to the silence and we both voiced the same sentiment; "What do we do now; --- just sit and look at one another?" I once heard a woman describes her husband's retirement as "half as much money with twice as much husband."

The problem is --- people who have worked hard all their lives really look forward to retirement but they actually have no idea how to be retired. Nor, do they know how to fill the void in their life that was once occupied by "work". I have things that I want to do and have been promising myself I would do but I'm not sure how to get started on them. I have four novels sitting on the end table next to my recliner in the sunporch that were just waiting to be read when I retire. But the idea of just sitting and reading for enjoyment as opposed to doing research for a sermon is still a bit foreign to me. I have writing I want to do, including revising a full two inch binder of short stories I wrote many years ago and maybe looking at getting them published. I'd like to get back into doing woodworking again but I have a garage to clean out first so I can work. Next week we are heading to Las Vegas for a week, --- so we have things to do.

But not today. Today I'm going to sit and learn to do nothing. Well, --------- I do need to go through the cards and gifts we received yesterday and make a list and write Thank You cards. And --- I also have the Christmas cards to sign and address and get ready to mail. And, we have the Christmas boxes to finalize to send out to the kids. And we need to go to the post office and get stamps and to Target and get some package wrapping tape.

It sure is great being retired! Have a most enjoyable day my friends. May God fill your day with blessings. Peace.