Some Thoughts On Transitions

SAT., AUG. 23, 1997, 6:25 AM
FARM, STUDY

The date, above, proclaims that you still are in transition, professionally. For eight more days you are officially employed as a professor; then you pass on over to professor, emeritus. You have been, but are no more. Yet, as you observe, you still have not vacated your office, and that must be completed before the transition is complete.

On the other hand, there is now the possibility of some continuing office space, much smaller and less grand, of course, but this would change the “end-point” of your transition. Do I know what will finally happen? Of course, but you needn’t know this now.

On Monday next the University will come alive again, but you shall have no classes. This is not a “first time occurrence”, for you had two sabbaticals, but it is unique in that you shall never come back to full-time status again. This full-time career of yours is over. You are in transition toward being fully retired.

At the same time you are in transition in terms of bodily health and life. The “you” that has been developing over 71 years of earth life will continue into retirement, with or without some interaction with the University. As I have told you, your spirit is still growing and developing, and it should become the dominant dimension of your health in whatever status this transition leads to.

Your bodily functions will continue to decline, some slowly and some more abruptly. A friend, Willy, with a brain tumor, left his body yesterday and is now in transition to life in the spirit, without the burden of a deteriorating body. And you hear of a younger friend, looking to be vigorous and in good health, who has had a cancer removed, which means she has more chance of such cells reoccurring. Will those within your body stay dormant or will they grow to be the cause of your bodily death? You needn’t be concerned about such. Remember that I have told you that you shall live just as long as I want you to be in this body.

For, at your age, you are also in transition out of this limited bodily life as Bob Russell… into a spirit realm where your perceptions of reality shall be ever-so-much wider and deeper than is possible now. Let the recognition and acceptance of this transition guide you as you decide what to keep, from the materials of your professional life. You can envision future uses of books and journals, but consider your slowing capacities and the focus of your life as I am sketching it for you. Consider the mess you have here already… and don’t compound it. Be realistic as you can be, about time and priorities. I shall continue to remind you of this more important transition.

Let this obvious transition, from professor to emeritus, be a guide for the other, more vital transition. Oh, I realize that there is some merit in living this earth life very fully, with no thoughts for the life after bodily death. I’m simply suggesting that more focus on the spiritual as ultimate reality, rather than politics, economics, or social conditions (even the minutia of your congregation and its physical plant) will make this eventual transition easier and more fun, whenever it happens.

You have Me to guide you in this, and I shall, as long as you continue to come for these Teachings. The Departmental meeting you attended on Thursday reinforced the perception that you are not comfortable in this technological era that seems to be dawning. You may decide that you should become more adept in present and future technologies, but this will be your decision. I am not pushing you to such. I am with some, but not with you.