Embracing joyful beginnings

Officially Day 3. Time is already flying and I started the week with wonderful time spent with my mother and then a dear friend. 

As I brought up my old Blogger login, I have been reading back through previous posts I've written for various purposes. Today I happened upon a series of posts written when we were visiting our partner church in Bulgaria. A dear friend of mine wrote the following prayer and although the prayer was inspired by a very different situation, I found parts of it jumping out at me this morning. Here it is. Perhaps it will speak to you, also. 

Dear Lord, You called us to a beautiful place, full of history and strength and fields of smiling sunflowers. Help us to listen and hear with our hearts the desires and dreams of our friends. Help this to become a long lasting partnership of trust and truth, like the Old Mountain. May we be joyful and loving. Use our lives and partnership for Your glory. Thank you Lord for showing us Your love in yet another way and seeing Your work outside of our daily walk. Provide us with the answers to the questions that we have long carried on our hearts but have been afraid to say out loud. We have prayed for days of celebration; help us to embrace this time of joyful beginnings. Open our eyes to opportunity that You have provided. Use our talents and gifts for good.

It seems we are always looking for answers to something. 

There are things we carry on our hearts for a long time. We are afraid to say them out loud lest they become real as our breath releases the words from the safety of our mind out into the world. Once out, there is no taking them back.

Help us to embrace this time of joyful beginnings with open eyes to use our talents and gifts for good.

Wow - these sentiments have my head and heart engaged and active this morning.  I'm looking forward to pondering what these words mean to me at this juncture.  

I've decided I'm going to post my ramblings as they develop, otherwise I'll never post anything and I want to get something "out there".  Open the door.  Start the car.  Turn on the oven.  Many first steps and posting my ramblings is this first step.  

Cheers.  Clifford out.      

T MINUS 1

AKA: FLARE UP LIKE FLAME AND MAKE BIG SHADOWS I CAN MOVE IN

Retirement is T-minus 1.  Technically this past week I was on vacation and today is Sunday, therefore it begins tomorrow. 

Everyone asks, "What are your plans for retirement?" I have many, some are more solid than others.  Writing is one of them.  

Most people - or should I say, those who are fortunate to have enough birthdays - reach this point and need to navigate this part of the journey.  

You hear lots of advice:  

• Be sure to keep busy!  
• Don't sit around all day!  
• Relax!  
• Take a nap!
• Enjoy it!  You've earned it!  

As I navigate this journey, I've decided to bring you along for the ride. Are you excited? I am!  No worries, I'm an excellent driver.

For starters I have revisited a poem my younger brother shared with me on the eve of running my first marathon in 2009.  It spoke to me then and it speaks to me now. I love the way poems and various writings speak to you differently at various times.  Isn't it wonderful?

Today I am embracing the poem's challenge to live life to the fullest.  Let's do it together!  You in?  Buckle up for the ride!

God Speaks to Each of Us

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
Then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame
and make big shadows I can move in.

Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror.
Just keep going. No feeling is final.
Don't let yourself lose me.

Nearby is the country they call life.
You will know it by its seriousness.

Give me your hand.

Author - Rainer Maria Rilke

Wikipedia notes on the poem's author:  René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), better known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. He is "widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets".^[1] He wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose.^[1] Several critics have described Rilke's work as "mystical"