Strange Lent

This has been a strange Lent here at the new Bradley/Hopkins House in Hornell.  Ash Wednesday was the day we closed on this house, and the next day the moving began.  Now it is nearing the end of Lent and we are still at it.

Moving is its own spiritual discipline, especially with the desire and need to simplify.  I am not sure anyone who visits us who had been in our Rochester house will notice a huge difference, but we do.  I have given away hundreds of books, with four more cases ready to be taken to the seminary in Rochester and another to the public library.  We've also passed on some furniture to family members and just plain thrown out a lot of stuff.

It does feel good to be surrounded by books again in my "work" space.  They are like old friends. I tried to keep only the books I need for reference and those which I am likely to pick off the shelf and search for that odd paragraph that is in the back of my mind.

I am seven weeks into medical retirement and still feeling my way.  This too is very much a spiritual discipline, although I do not feel very good at it yet.  I am settling into something like a writing discipline and have just about decided on a certificate program to work on at Alfred State.  I'll let the world know what it is when I am certain.

Life is good and I feel relatively well.  I get a twinge of guilt occasionally that I feel well enough that I should be "back at it."  I have gone "back at it" enough times to know, however, that is a very bad idea, at least for now.

I ran across a question asked by Margaret Guenther in her book At Home in the World.  "Is there a place for holy uselessness in my purposeful life?"

I  think I am beginning to discover that the answer is yes, but a very paradoxical yes. More on that some day.