A Week Of “Catch-Up”

MON., NOV. 8, 1993, 6:31 AM
FARM, STUDY

The convention and the visiting you did on each side of it was memorable, but this week that followed was one of continuing responsibility. You weren’t able to write the church newsletter in your usual style, and it is nice to know that some did miss that unique publication. The presentation to the conference here was good, but it did take some time of preparation. One important and enjoyable task seemed to come right on the heels of the one before. You have a long and appropriate list to accomplish today. So I call this week ahead on of “catch-up.”

Actually, while you lament the fact that your “Survival” series is broken by the Thanksgiving break, this does soften the blow of this time-consuming task. You just would like to conclude this “career” in a memorable fashion. I’m sure you’ll find a way.

It is good that you not only are following My advice in reducing your convention going but are telling others of this change in your activity level. You see, some go “full speed” toward the end of a career and then plunge into retirement as a respite from activity that has been too frenetic. In want your transition to be more gentle, and I hope you can see that Our Ruminations, this Farm, the church newsletter, and letter-writing should be the basis of your “professional spiritual” life, as the teaching role is officially over. Yet the transition to this should be one with fewer and fewer of weeks like these past two. That’s My advice, but you have to be willing to organize… and make refusals… so that the need for “catch-up” is minimal.

As you read some of My Teachings to Lenore yesterday you realized there were directives in these that you have forgotten. Some you should try to accomplish. Some will be done better late than never. And some will join others that I have offered you before… as never accomplished. You observed the zeal that your old and feeble mentor, Tex, still has for the books that he has “assembled” over his long lifetime. I want you to have comparable concerns for keeping communication going in this spiritual network you and I have built and will continue to build. I want you to see that as your prime post-retirement “life-work.” And, as I said, I want the transition to it to be gentle and as stress-free as possible.

As you look out your windows into both a clear and a clouded sky you see the reality of a transition from the season of full leafed trees to that of bare limbs… from healthy green leaves on the trees to dead leaves on the ground. It is time for this transition, as it is time for these kerosene heaters and regular fires in the fireplace. Seldom will you sweat and seldom will you itch as this season develops. Count your blessings in this transition season.

You can imagine what I’d like this study and your office to “look like.” You shall not have time for such rearranging this week, but be aware of this more ideal condition as the break time comes. It is not yet a time to simplify, but it is a time to maintain better order.