Well Done Good and Faithful Servant

Today we finished the work of praying Fr. Valker home to God.  He is at rest.

 Now we start the work of living lives that will exemplify what he did for us ~ each of us individually, for our community of St. Norbert and for the greater community to which we all belong.  How will I continue the legacy that he left me?  Right now I can't answer that for as happy as I am that his journey has reached this milestone, my heart has an empty spot that will take some time to fill.  So I will reflect on the words of John Muir and think about the beauty of life and death.

"Let children walk with Nature, let them see the beautiful blendings and communions of death and life, their joyous inseparable unity, as taught in woods and meadows, plains and mountains and streams of our blessed star, and they will learn that death is stingless indeed, and as beautiful as life." 

Good bye my friend, my encouragement, my mentor, my priest.  Rest in your true home!

School Time

While I am still posting on the CaringBridge site for Fr. Valker, I thought maybe I would put something here about the start of the new school year.

I started back to class yesterday ~ certainly not a unique experience, thousands of other students started class within the last couple of weeks.  But for me it is another big change for I am "moving" within IPS from Pastoral Counseling to Pastoral Studies (Healthcare track) to pursue chaplaincy.  I'm trying not to think of the last two years as "wasted" because great learning took place and I met some wonderful people.  But I was in the wrong place.  It's hard to admit that ~ hard to admit being "wrong".  Maybe "wrong" is the wrong word!  What I learned I will take with me on my new journey ~ and there is nothing wasted in new knowledge.

And so I will move forward with a quote from Conrad Hall:

"You are always a student, never a master.  You have to keep moving forward."

Have a great day!

A New Adventure

When the CaringBridge site for Fr. Valker opened, I started posting.  My goal was to not let a day go by when there wouldn't be something new ~ just in case he looked.  As time went on, some people told me how much they enjoyed my posts.
In July I went on retreat.  While I was away I began to wonder whether I was posting for Fr. Valker or for me!  So, I stopped for a while ~ until Megan told me that Fr. Valker would probably think it was ok even if I was posting for me.  So I've started posting again, but we all know there will be a time when the CaringBridge site is no longer needed.
I"ve started this blog to keep writing for me.  Until the time comes, I will continue posting on the CaringBridge site ~ eventually I will transition my morning thoughts to this blog.
Thanks for reading . . .