Thanks for joining me!
Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton
I am journeying on a new path — or perhaps it is a continuing path and I am just passing into new territory. I like where I am on the path. I feel time lengthening and broadening, and I can take the time to look around me, join others when I want, experience stretches of solitude when it suits, and dig into those tasks and experiences and practices that I had to set aside previously. I am officially retired as of tomorrow.
I have loved the myriad of work positions I was fortunate enough to have throughout my life. I was a journalist where I learned to write succinctly and with the who, what, where, when, why formula — something that in later academia I tried to unlearn! I was a philosophy/social sciences major, a seminary student, a United Methodist clergyperson, a counselor and chaplain in an Episcopal girls school, an ordained Episcopal priest, a psychologist in private practice, the director of a spirituality center in an Episcopal parish, a spiritual director, and a professor and chairperson of a graduate counseling program that integrates spirituality and counseling skills.
Many of these positions were ones I held part-time and jointly, so the long list really is not a history of leaping from one position to another. My deep call to vocation was and still is a pursuit of the ways one can integrate their spiritual practices and faith into a helping profession. So now, in retirement, I will still be looking to walk a path that combines these two.
At present it seems that I will be living into a call to give workshops and presentations in various settings. Already I have been asked to present at an Institute for Spirituality and Mental Health in the VA system, to present on complicated grief for professionals and laity, to offer a retreat for Moravian Bishops, and a workshop on pilgrimage at a local parish. I also am continuing to offer spiritual direction to several directees and will keep a small (very limited) counseling practice out of my home office.
I don’t want to over-schedule myself. Rather, these workshops and retreats are opportunities for me to teach and offer on topics I love and want to share. I will say “no” if I feel stressed for time — my retirement pilgrimage path needs to have time for family and friend relationships that have been neglected during my working years. I look forward to traveling to visit (Memphis, upstate New York, New Mexico) friends who have moved and to see the sights at each place. And I hope that friends and family will come to our house and partake of its gardens and quiet spaces.
I intend to write twice a week as a practice. If more needs to be written, I will add it. Mostly this will be simple personal reflections on my path. If you choose to share a part of your journey with me, I would be delighted — both in reading my reflections and perhaps adding a comment or brief reflection of your own.
On the path,
Jane +
Pilgrimages and Paths 