Another Step Toward Sunrise

FRI., DEC. 6, 1996, 6:52 AM
FARM, STUDY

In such a title you would expect the last word to be sunset, now wouldn’t you. The group that left here late yesterday afternoon represented the last class for this term, and two of the classes this week are ones you will not likely teach again. It is the sunset of your long teaching career. Yet I also want you to see it as the sunrise of another stage in your life. You have resisted thinking about retirement and valuing it over this career that you have enjoyed so much. It now is becoming time to take pleasure in the sunset, and then be ready for the sunrise (and you see it now, in the morning sky).

It is becoming harder to prepare for the student groups that come out here to the Farm for each course. Yet you do realize how unique this is for these young people… something special to remember… that some will associate with spirit. (You missed a chance, yesterday, to comment on their experience in sitting in a circle, seeing each other in your “living room”.)

The lives and careers of most of these students are in the sunrise mode. Yours is in the sunset, but anticipate the sunrise of “what comes next”. And, of course, even physical death is just “another event” that will represent still a newer sunrise, as life goes on… and you’ll find it enjoyable, too.

Now note that I call this “another step”. There are many more to take before the next lap of this journey begins. You have another set of papers and then 3 sets of finals. The Christmas season has begun, and that, while enjoyable, has its pressures. You know the theme of the next Ruminations, but you haven’t done the “research”, let alone the writing, printing, and mailing. You are not yet out of the present mode, and it shall become somewhat more difficult, with the “slowing” you’re experiencing.

Still… the completion of these classes for this term is “another step”. Your progress is acceptable, and it should mean that when the Spring classes end… and then the two 9 day ones in the summer… you’ll feel joyous in greeting the new “sunrise”.

You dread what leaving your office will entail. You’ll have to make some decisions about this during this Spring session. Choices of what to keep and what to cast away… or, better, “giveway”… will be hard and time-consuming. You know it will be necessary, and after the “process” has been completed you will miss little of what you have cast away. For you still will have so much that you will bring here.

Your concentration, after this next sunrise, should be on the spiritual, as I have already suggested. You have paid little heed, lately, to the journals of your field. Begin to decide, by your stated criterion, which ones you read and which not. Don’t renew those that are not read… even some that are more spiritual. Be honest, but give each a “chance”.

You should look forward to the sunrise of a more leisurely life, yet one still full of challenges and pleasures, more and more attuned to the spirit. The spirit of this place and your continuing relationship with Me will become more central. You should write more letters, the technology of pen and paper being the most appropriate for you, despite the more obvious pressures of this era.

You could become computer literate, when you have time to do so, but be aware of how “time wasteful” this could be, probably more so than time-saving, for you.