Just a heads up.  I’m planning in the near future to change the name of this blog.  I had originally thought I might call it The Sunset Juggler.  I have the photo (no, I’m the photographer, not the juggler) to go with the name.  And my sense of life in general, and life with God and scripture in particular, is that we are always juggling and wrestling to find our way.  And, this is more true for me since maybe April of this year, in the aftermath of my gastric bypass surgery, as I see the probability of retirement of some kind approaching (more quickly, I suspect, than I had anticipated), I also see myself as being (at least at the start of) the sunset of my years.

Originally I went with The Dragon’s Mouth because, when I launched my blog, some members of St. George’s urged me to make a strong connection between my blog and the congregation where I work — and George is closely associated (although only centuries after his death) with a dragon.  But I really think of this as primarily my own, personal blog — not as an instrument of St. George’s.  And I can now see the probability that my connection to St. George’s will end in the foreseeable future — perhaps as soon as this coming January.

So I’ve been thinking, for a while, that I probably want to separate my blog from any direct connection to St. George’s — much as I love the congregation (and expect I always will — though from a distance).  And today I got what may be the final nudge:  exposure to some poetry by John Hall Wheelock, much of which makes much more sense (I suspect) at my current age than it would have when I was younger.  I think I’m going to post three of his poems in the coming days.

Mind you, I’m not thinking my life is coming to and end.  Far from it.  Not much more than a year ago I took one of those tests predicting how long you were likely to live (at one of the Church Pension Fund workshops on retirement).  It predicted I would live to be 60.  I’m 58 now.  I’m pretty sure my life expectancy, in the aftermath of my surgery, has gone way up.  But I do see myself as approaching, at least, a new phase in my life.

At my age, I have reached the point where it is unlikely that another congregation will call me to be their Rector or Vicar when I am no longer at St. George’s.  The likelihood is that I will be looking at doing interim ministries and supply work.  That’s going to be very different.  And I may well be looking at trying to pick up some kind of additional work, part time, even before I am gone from St. George’s — moving from full time one year, to 3/4 time last year, to half time this year (and who knows next year) has been an adjustment — even if I am feeling less pressure (so far) this year at half time than I did last year at 3/4 time.

I’m probably also going to have to post a new photo of myself.  I look a good bit different than I used to, now that I’m over 130  pounds lighter.