Greetings, friends, and Happy New Year. I took a break from writing and my website in the latter part of 2023. I need more uninterrupted time to continue taking stock of where I was at in my life, reflect on the meaning and purpose of retirement from a full-time career, what things I want and need to continue doing with my time, and how best to tap into those gifts and desires that God has instilled in me for the benefit of the ones I love and the community to which I belong.
There were cross-county relocation bookends to this important period of time and reflection. The first was from Minneapolis to Palm Desert, CA, in 2020, in the middle of a pandemic. Working at home to avoid COVID eventually led to early retirement and a move to the sunny and warm Coachella Valley Desert of southern California. My husband and I dreamed of escaping the cold Minnesota winters and enjoying the “good life.” We bought a wonderful house with a beautifully landscaped, walled-in private backyard in a 55 and older community.
I have always felt a kinship with the desert ever since the “desert experience” became a spiritual encounter on my spiritual journey in my early years in a religious community. Along the way, we met some friends and enjoyed the resort’s community amenities, golf courses, clubhouses, gyms, swimming pools, and many social gatherings. It was all quite lovely. Winters that feel more like spring, and of course, summers that feel more like…well…hot, hot, and hotter. But as the days, months, and years continued, there were still many more dreams and experiences that we looked forward to experiencing. Something more than just beautiful weather.
So, while life in the desert was a blessing in many ways, it has also felt isolated, distant, and touristy. After living in the Midwest for so many years, we missed the other important things that are part of our life: the change of seasons, exploring the amenities of urban living, family and friends, and a much more economical cost of living. It had been an unforgettable retirement dream that we will hold in our hearts with gratefulness, joy, and deep appreciation.
That led to our second cross-country move from Palm Desert to just outside Milwaukee, WI, in Oak Creek. As anyone can imagine, the change has been dramatic, exciting, and comforting on so many different levels. The downtown urban amenities of the “city life” are a welcome site to us Midwestern city boys. With restaurants, shopping, a farmer’s market in the summer months, a wildlife preserve out our back door, and a short 15-minute drive to downtown Milwaukee with all its big city entertainment, art galleries, restaurants, and the always-changing Lake Michigan. It really feels like home.
And so, the time feels right to move forward with our lives, knowing that all is well, we are well, and it’s time to get busy with all those things we want to do in the second half of life. It is also time for me to get back into more active writing, do some journaling, and use my website to make that happen. When I first started my website, I thought it would be a place for others to come and find inspiration, and if that continues to happen, then I will be pleased. But I have realized that my site, Liminalspacesofgrace, is not so much for others as it is for me. A place where I can creatively express myself, ponder the paradoxes of life, and share my own liminal spaces of grace.
Some things will remain the same, of course. The Voices of Wisdom and Journals and Reflections will continue to provide encouragement and hope to those visiting my site, but also some new musing and thoughts of an older gay married man who continues on his journey of discovery of God’s extravagant love for me and all creation.
Visitor Reflections