FIRING UP THE FUN

“Indeed, we know that when the earthly tent in which we dwell is destroyed we have a dwelling provided for us by God, a dwelling in the heavens, not made by hands but to last forever. We groan while we are here, even as we yearn to have our heavenly habitation envelop us…While we live in our present tent we groan; we are weighed down beause we do not wish to be stripped naked but rather to have the heavenly dwelling envelop us, so that what is mortal may be absorbed by life.” 2 Cor. 5:1-8.

Something to think about vis-a-vis a possible move!

Also, the weather in Tucson has finally turned cooler, which makes everything kind of heavenly. When you’re in the middle of a desert summer, you just put your head down and keep plodding. It’s only afterward you start to realize how much energy goes into the putting down of the head, and the plodding.

I am already on the move a lot, and that suits me. Nov. 2 I’m driving to LA and will be staying with friends and house-sitting through the 13th. I’ll return to California the week of December 9 and, at St. Andrew’s Abbey, will take my final Benedictine Oblate vows on December 12, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

Christmas in New York! December 22 I fly into LaGuardia and will stay near my beloved St. Vincent Ferrer church for a week, then down to the apartment of a friend who lives in Chelsea and will be out of town till January 21.

Mardi Gras I fly to Mexico and will be in San Miguel de Allende for Ash Wednesday and the first two weeks of Lent, then if all goes well at this monastery, connected with New Mexico’s Christ in the Desert, for several days.

So that is a bit of my upcoming itinerary.

Meanwhile October 29 is the release date of my new book, CONSUMED: The Joys, Sorrows and Debacles of a Life Ordered to Art!

You can order the kindle version already. Will introduce it more fully down the line a bit.

I talked to my “wealth manager,” who looks after my nest egg, the other day. Turns out I’m supposed to live till 94 and can “retire” in 10 years, at 82. And then I’ll have a large sum of money (because it will have just been sitting there for years and years) when I croak, to which my first question is Why can’t I just spend it now?

I just follow along. Everything is fine for today! And I would keep working in any case.

Speaking of which, thanks again so much for the full-throated, wonderfully generous response to the Fall Fundraiser. I heard from so many people I hadn’t connected with in a while, and a bunch of new people, and many people who as I said I had no idea were readers.

My favorite moment during the Book Sale/Fundraiser may have been this:

One lovely woman ordered five books (the Book Sale has a 10-book minimum), adding “I’m happy to support you; I’ll send the full amount and just keep the remainder.” Then it turned out I was out of the one of the five books she wanted, so I emailed to ask if she would like for me to substitute another. She responded that no extra book was necessary, but instead she would ask my prayers for a beloved relative who is strugglng with ill health.

Granted, I’ve been a little overwrought as of late–but I simply burst into tears. It is good to have a business plan, and to enlist the aid of a website designer and marketing person who can help “get my work out there,” and to try to be a good steward of my gifts.

But at the end of the day, the personal connection has always, always been the most important thing for me, in my life, in my work. That’s what will endure. That’s what I’ll have to offer when the sheep are separated from the goats.

“Humility encompasses both inability and eager longing. And it does lead us to new life.”
–Norvene Vest, Preferring Christ: A Devotional Commentary on the Rule of St. Benedict