Restreaming: Thriving in the Currents of Retirement - Softcover

Craddock, William S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 089869003X ISBN 13: 9780898690033

Verlag: Church Publishing, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

Short, pithy reflections illumine all the issues involving retirement living.

Working with the metaphor of a kayak paddling in a new, downstream current of retirement, prominent Wellness expert Bill Craddock offers an array of provocative reflections as a way to invite the reader to envision new opportunities, new relationships, new ways of being. The primary purpose of these reflections is to entertain, edify, and to prepare those anticipating retirement or actually retired with gentle yet intentional paddle strokes for guiding their life (kayak) into their later years.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

WILLIAM S. CRADDOCK JR. is a business executive who has worked with Trinity Church, Wall Street, in the development and management of The Clergy Leadership Project from 1991 until 1995. He served as Director of The Cornerstone Project, a ministry of the Episcopal Church Foundation. He was the Managing Director of CREDO Institute, Inc. from 2001 until 2012 and then served as Senior Vice President of the Church Pension Group, overseeing Education and Wellness programs. He retired in April of 2015 is now serving as Chair of the Board of Directors for St. Vincent’s Centre for Handicapped Children in Haiti and also on the board of the National Metal Museum. He lives in Memphis, Tennessee.

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Restreaming

Thriving in the Currents of Retirement

By William S. Craddock Jr.

Church Publishing Incorporated

Copyright © 2017 William S. Craddock Jr.
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-0-89869-003-3

Contents

1. Preface, 
2. The Kayak, 
3. Balancing Life, 
4. Morning Dawning, 
5. Silent Undercurrent, 
6. Turning Points, 
7. Downshifting, 
8. A Sense of the Sacred, 
9. Adaptation, 
10. Joy, 
11. The Deep Current, 
12. Sweet Spots, 
13. Fear, 
14. Vehicles for Relationships, 
15. Cross-Training, 
16. Letting Go, 
17. A Rhythm for REP, 
18. Going with the Flow, 
19. Being Aware of the Present, 
20. Keeping Busy or Keeping in Touch, 
21. Seafood Gumbo, 
22. Center of the Universe, 
23. Living Streams, 
24. Running in the Park, 
25. The Love Field, 
26. Anticipatory Emotions, 
27. Contemplation, 
28. Radical Amazement, 
29. Working Out, 
30. Decluttering, 
31. Silence and Solitude, 
32. The Japanese Garden, 
33. In His Hands, 
34. Humility, 
35. The Mirror, 
36. Life Cycles, 
37. The Snow Leopard, 
38. Planning for Change, 
39. Some People's Special Ways, 
40. Rip Currents, 
41. Fully Alive, 
42. Pursuing Unanswerable Questions, 
43. If Not Now, Then When?, 
44. Legacy, 
45. Mountain Tops, 
46. Randomness and Patterns of Life, 
47. Unity, 
48. Life Mastery Seminar, 
49. Aged Out, 
50. Guns to Sailboats, 
51. Gardening, 
52. The Process, 
53. Mrs. Massey, 
54. Memory, 
55. First Love, 
56. Seeking Wisdom, 
57. Down Times, 
58. La Baguette Brothers, 
59. Pilgrim People, 
60. Play, 
61. Hope vs. Optimism, 
62. The Good Man, 
63. John, 
64. Geezers to Classics, 
65. Walking with Wisdom, 
66. Controlling Direction and Speed, 
67. Gratitude, 
68. Being Withness, 
69. Dust to Dust, 
70. The Paradox of Mortality, 
71. Afterword, 
72. Acknowledgments, 

CHAPTER 1

The Kayak

Imagine that you are in a kayak floating gently down a cool, clear stream. The kayak is much more stable and balanced than a canoe — flexible, agile, swift, and easy to steer with its two-bladed paddle. When approaching rapids in a canoe, one is anxious to avoid the "Vs" in the stream — telltale signs for submerged rocks. The swift current propels the canoe quickly through the white water. With the one-bladed paddle there is only limited control of direction and speed. In a kayak rapids are approached with much more confidence since one can maneuver in and around the rocks and actually "play" in the turbulent waves and eddies.

As we begin our journey, embrace this kayak metaphor and approach the whitewater challenges along the way with confidence that you are in a stable, agile, and flexible self that will not only survive but thrive on this journey. Your fears are mitigated and possibly diminished by your balanced approach and adaptive perspective. There are companions along the way in their own kayaks, floating down, negotiating the rapids and rocks on their own journeys. The swift current of time will carry you through difficult and challenging obstacles. Stay alert and attentive to the deep undercurrent that may guide you along in God's providential ways of being. Enjoy the ride!

A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find that after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.

— John Steinbeck

CHAPTER 2

Balancing Life

The kayak is known for its balance — even the word "kayak" is a palindrome, a word that is the same when spelled backwards. A kayak looks like a palindrome — the bow and stern are almost identical and one can often only tell the front from the back by the alignment of the seat. Segments of our stream of life are quiet, placid, slow-moving. Other parts are challenging as we are surrounded with chaotic white waters. Our journey will have a balance of both contentments and challenges.

As we enter retirement, a critical key is to craft a life that is balanced — not too much "taking it easy" but not too much "staying real busy." Shifting from a work pattern of "nine-to-five" with its demands and expectations to a retirement pattern with almost no structure can be frightening. In the first few months of my "restreaming," I began to realize that I could not just drift along in the easy, comfortable current of homeostasis. I needed to find a balance between contentment and challenge. I was eager to engage in the life around me and find ways I could give back to others and to my community.

Recent studies indicate that a moderate amount of stress (called eustress) lights up our brain circuits and focuses our attentions and awareness of life around us. We are at our best when engaged in an array of external activities, projects, and relationships, and also taking "time out" for solitude and reflection.

Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony.

— Thomas Merton

CHAPTER 3

Morning Dawning

Morning dawn happens when the sun is less than six degrees below the horizon and the rays of sunlight silently and slowly scatter across the sky. There is a pristine and sacred stillness in these early moments of solitude.

In the very early morning, the only conversation is with myself and with God. In younger times in my life, there was the chatter of children, time commitments, and worries about work, but now, in retirement. ... ah, yes, the silence that invites reflections into a deeper sense of being!

Imagine the shape of the opening day and wonder where you will find yourself in it. Floating in the gentle current of your journey stream, you may become aware that you will be directed by an array of choices, moment by moment. Every time a choice is made, your life, your identity, your relationships will be changed. So what choices, what decisions will you make in the morning dawning that align with your deepest passions, that will spring fresh from the Word?

Morning has broken, like the first morning, Blackbird has spoken, like the first bird. Praise for the singing! Praise for the morning! Praise for them, springing fresh from the Word!

— Eleanor Farjeon

CHAPTER 4

Silent Undercurrent

The light went out. I was scuba diving deep in a cold, dark limestone cave in Florida, alone, when my underwater flashlight was crushed by the pressure of eighty feet of water. As a twenty-year-old college student on a spring fling, I was stupid and reckless to be diving into an underground cave with a fresh water river coursing through the limestone. The water had been crystal clear as I eased through the mouth of the cave, admiring the slippery, fresh-water eels darting through little openings and crevices.

When the light went out, I somehow didn't panic. I knew that if I was very still the river current would gently take me to the mouth of the cave and to the light of the outside world. In a few seconds, I could see the cave's opening and the sun's light shining through the water. I was safe, alive, relieved, and strangely humbled.

As I reflect on this foolish experience of my youth, I think about the importance of being still and letting God's unseen but powerful "current" carry me forward to the light of Life. At other...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Church Publishing
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2017
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 089869003X
• ISBN 13: 9780898690033
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 1
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: preigu; mail@preigu.de; ; Lengericher Landstr. 19; Osnabrück; 49078; Deutschland