Home and recovered after a whirlwind weekend in Ottawa visiting grandsons and daughter. Shared a special Lodge event with Diego, and some really good time with Jennifer and a University friend from graduate study days. Life has been hectic since returning. Preparing for worship, scraping ice from the driveway during a weird mild spell. Imagine 10 degrees above 0 C in January on the Canadian prairies!
A small landmark in the exercise life. Because of the prevalence of ice on the streets, I have passed on the usual walking routine. (I hope to go tomorrow, as I purchased 'ice grippers' for my shoes today.) Instead, I have been beefing up the pool routine. Both Friday and this morning, I swam a full kilometre! Not all at once mind you. I did have to pause after each pair of length to regain my breath. But I keep plugging away until I had completed 40 lengths…a full kilometre in our pool. I hope to keep this up, three times a week. Good intentions, anyway.
Yesterday I committed myself to some support for a colleague undertaking a sabbatical in April. I will conduct worship 6 times between mid-April and the end of June. I'll also be on deck for funerals in her community, 49 km west of here. During the drive home from worship, I got thinking about being "retired" but continuing to work as much as I do, which is as much as I am able to do. It suddenly hit me that my model in ministry, and my first ministerial mentor, Rev. Henry Moore, retired in the early 50's. He was a former bricklayer, and his final act of ministry was to construct the chimney on the new church building the congregation was finishing. He "retired" to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he continued to serve a new congregation until he was 92! I had to smile at that. Here I am, following in my model's footsteps. Who knows if I'll make 92?
I'm on the cusp of having an MRI at the end of this week, to see if there has been more deterioration in my compromised lower back. One of the perils of getting old: things slide downhill in some ways. I do what I can to compensate, trying to be forgiving of my body when it won't do what it used to do. Sigh…
A small landmark in the exercise life. Because of the prevalence of ice on the streets, I have passed on the usual walking routine. (I hope to go tomorrow, as I purchased 'ice grippers' for my shoes today.) Instead, I have been beefing up the pool routine. Both Friday and this morning, I swam a full kilometre! Not all at once mind you. I did have to pause after each pair of length to regain my breath. But I keep plugging away until I had completed 40 lengths…a full kilometre in our pool. I hope to keep this up, three times a week. Good intentions, anyway.
Yesterday I committed myself to some support for a colleague undertaking a sabbatical in April. I will conduct worship 6 times between mid-April and the end of June. I'll also be on deck for funerals in her community, 49 km west of here. During the drive home from worship, I got thinking about being "retired" but continuing to work as much as I do, which is as much as I am able to do. It suddenly hit me that my model in ministry, and my first ministerial mentor, Rev. Henry Moore, retired in the early 50's. He was a former bricklayer, and his final act of ministry was to construct the chimney on the new church building the congregation was finishing. He "retired" to Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, where he continued to serve a new congregation until he was 92! I had to smile at that. Here I am, following in my model's footsteps. Who knows if I'll make 92?
I'm on the cusp of having an MRI at the end of this week, to see if there has been more deterioration in my compromised lower back. One of the perils of getting old: things slide downhill in some ways. I do what I can to compensate, trying to be forgiving of my body when it won't do what it used to do. Sigh…
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