David Lee

My first day in seclusion from social media led to quite a bit of “free time” and I remembered this tool that I have emailed to me each day, but haven’t been making use of here of late. So today’s audio meditation was a bit of struggle in focusing, but I did get a reminder to focus on God and His presence instead of the things of this world.

I thirst for God….I hunger for God….I long for God

https://encounteringpeace.libsyn.com/hungering-after-god?utm_source=Nonprofit&utm_campaign=8f165104dc-daily_devo_200226&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d4b541e96b-8f165104dc-77022653

Meditation for the Day

I should pray for faith as a thirsty person prays for water in a desert. Do I know what it means to feel sure that God will never fail me? Am I as sure of this as I am sure that I still breathe? I should pray daily and most diligently that my faith may increase. There is nothing lacking in my life because, really, all I need is mine, only I lack the faith to know it. I am like a rich man’s child who sits in rags when all around me are stores of all I could desire.

Prayer for the Day

I pray for the realization that God has everything I need. I pray that I may know that His power is always available.From Twenty-Four Hours a Day

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Twelve Step Programs

I was furious when I found myself at my first Al-Anon meeting. It seemed so unfair that he had the problem and I had to go to a meeting. But by that time, I had nowhere left in the world to go with my pain. Now, I’m grateful for Al-Anon and my codependency recovery. Al-Anon keeps me on track; recovery has given me a life.
—Anonymous

There are many Twelve Step programs for codependents: Al-Anon, Adult Children of Alcoholics, CoDa, Families Anonymous, Nar-Anon, and more. We have many choices about which kind of group is right for us and which particular group in that category meets our needs. Twelve Step groups for codependents are free, anonymous, and available in most communities. If there is not one that is right for us, we can start one.

Twelve Step groups for codependents are not about how we can help the other person; they’re about how we can help ourselves grow and change. They can help us accept and deal with the ways codependency has affected us. They can help us get on track and stay there.

There is magic in Twelve Step programs. There is healing power in connecting with other recovering people. We access this healing power by working the Steps and by allowing them to work on us. The Twelve Steps are a formula for healing.

How long do we have to go to meetings? We go until we “get the program.” We go until the program “gets us.” Then we keep on going and growing.

Selecting a group and then attending regularly are important ways we can begin and continue to take care of ourselves. Actively participating in our recovery program by working the Steps is another.

I will be open to the healing power available to me from the Twelve Steps and a recovery program.

From The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie

Beginning on Wednesday of this week, I’ll be taking a break from social media for the season of Lent. In the meantime, I ponder what I’ll do to take up the time I’d usually be spending online. I realize that I spend far too much time scrolling on Facebook and the like and it’s going to mean I have a lot of minutes (to be perfectly honest, hours) on my hands. I think it’s a good idea to at least think ahead a few days and ponder what I’ll do with that time.

1. I’ll still be making some of the same posts I do each day, but will be doing so on the WordPress website instead of FB. I’ve pretty much gotten that down to a science, so it’s not going to make a huge difference in my daily routine.
2. I started writing in a journal some seventeen plus years ago and I’m sure I’ll be doing more writing. I also plan on writing some to share via my WordPress page.
3. While I take quite a few pictures each week in my role as a free-lance photographer, I’ve gotten away from my favorite brand of photography – nature pics. So I’m planning on being more active with that type photography and of course will be posting my pictures on this WordPress page. When I do return to social media, I’ll have plenty to share there as well.
4. I plan to do quite a bit of reading. I’ve just started “A Hero’s Journey” by Joseph Campbell. I’ve struggled a bit getting into it’s story, but it came highly recommended, so I may find myself digging a little deeper.
5. Housework has never been one of my strong suits. I’ve gotten a bit behind (okay, honestly a LOT behind) in keeping things organized and tidy), so I’ll have a lot of time to do some quality housecleaning.
6. Who knows??? Who knows what will show up in this time away from the daily feed I scroll. That’s one of the more-exciting parts of the Lenten journey, not knowing in advance what treasures I might find.

After contemplating for less than a full day, I’ve decided I’ll once again be taking a hiatus from social media for the Lenten season of 2020.

This year, Lent begins on Wednesday, February 26, 2020. But before Lent even begins, there’s Shrove Tuesday, the day before Lent, which is a time to “clean the soul,” according to the BBC. The first day of Lent is called Ash Wednesday. On Ash Wednesday, priests gather ashes from the previous Palm Sunday (more on that later) and rub them on the congregant’s foreheads.

So my posts on Tuesday, February 26th will be my last until the official end of Lent is on Thursday, April 9, three days before Easter Sunday. In years past when I’ve done this, I’ve waited until Easter Sunday to rejoin social media and that may very well be the case this year as well.

The holiday is 40 days long—not including Sundays. (So, technically, it’s 46 days long.)

As in the past, I will post links to the sites that contain the information that my friends would usually see on my pages. I will also make the same posts to this account on WordPress. I do this for those who are truly interested in following those readings each day. This will require an additional click from my FB page, but think it still allows ample access to the readings.

On two different occasions in the past, I have taken a hiatus from social media over the Lenten season. I did so last year and thought it was beneficial for me to do so. I see that Lent is beginning next Wednesday and am once again seriously considering staying away from Facebook and the like during that season.

Lent 2020 will begin on Wednesday, February 26 and ends on Thursday, April 9

I realized this afternoon that the beginning of the next year will mark the end of my first decade in retirement. Who would have ever known the journey that I would have traveled when I made that decision to leave the classroom ten years ago? Or at least I thought I was leaving….

The first six months of retirement require that you not work for the state during that time period. I took the opportunity to go on a chartered trip to six different major league baseball games in seven days. It was a most enjoyable trip and I got to go to places I might have never seen otherwise.

At the end of that six month period, I was fairly certain that I wanted to keep active by substitute teaching. I remember my first assignment, working for a seventh grade teacher that I’d ended my career with just the year before. There were more ample opportunities to substitute I found and it seemed to be an easy enough job to work only when I had the desire to.

One summer day I was at the local cafe and saw a principal whose son I had taught and she inquired as to whether or not I’d be interested in doing an maternity leave for one of her teachers at an elementary school. That job would be the first of five maternity leaves that I did at three different schools, with each one lasting approximately six weeks.

In yet another situation, a teacher was retiring in October from the school I had last worked at before retiring. I was asked to work for a nine week period and then a replacement would be found. Well the nine weeks came and went and a replacement wasn’t secured, so I ended up working that position for 3/4 of the school year.

The following year, another middle school in the district had a teacher vacate his position after the first half of the year and they needed someone to teach eighth grade science for the second half of the year. I accepted that position and can honestly say it was probably one of the most difficult positions I’ve held. But the end result was that the students did quite well on their end of grade exam and that left me with a good feeling for what I’d done.

There were several other medical leaves I handled for teachers, two of them at the beginning of the school year. They were either at the school I had last worked at or for teachers I knew well, which made them quite a bit easier. I will have to say it’s a bit hard to leave a group that you started the year with, but it comes along with the territory.

I got an opportunity three years ago to teach fifth grade science every day for half a day. It was at a school I had become familiar with through having done three maternity leaves there. It was also my good fortune during one half of one year to get to teach alongside my daughter, who was the media coordinator at the school before accepting another position. That gig lasted for two years, including the challenging last year, which was in a single wide trailer. At the end of last school year, the school was able to hire a full time teacher, so that job came to a close.

The most recent position that I held was at an elementary school. The principal who have given me my first interim position was herself doing an interim at an elementary school I’d never worked at before. The job was teaching fourth grade science and social studies and I’d be needed for the first nine weeks of the school year. That nine weeks came and went without them securing another teacher, so I ended up working there the whole first half of the year.

I was informed a couple of weeks before Christmas break that the system had secured another teacher for the position and that my services would no longer be needed after the first of the year. I had actually anticipated that I might have this position for the remainder of the school year, but such was not the case. I can say without a doubt that this was the hardest position I’ve had to leave. I was blessed to have the opportunity to work with two extraordinary teachers and a wonderful group of kids and I will very much miss them the second half of the year.

So as I begin the new year, for the first time in two and a half years, I’ll just go back to substitute teaching again. I have checked into the automated system that informs you of vacancies and have as of yet to been assigned my first sub job, which I’m sure will come at some point in the next couple of weeks.

I like to post pictures on social media when I work at various schools and I’ve adopted the hashtag #redefiningthewordretirement . And I suppose that’s what I’ll be doing in the weeks, months, and years ahead. God only knows what avenues that journey will take.

David Lee

“To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven.”

During the past several months, I have become more aware of the seasons we all experience in our lives. Just like the seasons of the calendar year, we go through various seasons in our journey. And as sure as fall transitions into winter, winter into spring, we all move from one of life’s seasons into another.

There are those seasons in our lives when everything seems to be going rather well. All things are falling into place, we find ourselves joyful and full of life. We learn to cherish those times, for as sure as we are certain this is where we want to stay, those seasons are destined to change.

There are those seasons quite the opposite, where nothing seems to be going as planned. Failed relationships, physical ailments, and the like can send us reeling into a time of uncertainty and despair. While we don’t like to linger long in these places of darkness, they too are a part of the fabric of our lives. And we realize that these difficult times too shall pass.

The key is to be able to live in whatever the present moment might be and to take each day, whether it be good or bad, as it comes to us. Certainly our journeys are not meant to filled with continual light or darkness. There are lessons to be learned in each of our seasons that can be learned in no other period of time.

So just for today, I’ll accept the season I’m going through as a natural part of the flow of life and be appreciative of all life has to offer.

David Lee

For the first time in a couple of years, I’m not preparing to start a new school year. No bulletin boards to plan, no meetings to attend, no thoughts on what I’ll be doing the first days of class. Another transition time for me, going back to subbing instead of teaching every day. It is a part, perhaps a detour, in this journey of my life.

I sometimes wonder if I made the right decision nine years ago when I decided to retire. I was fifty-one years old at the time and after much contemplation, felt it was the thing to do. I’ve had the opportunity since that point to fill eleven interim positions, ranging in duration of several weeks to three-fourths of the school year. And I’m thankful for each one of those opportunities I’ve had.

Of one thing I am sure – in each situation I’ve found myself in during my post-retirement years, I’ve been exactly where I was supposed to be to fill in for whatever the length of time was to be. I know subbing from day-to-day will be different, but once again, feel that’s a part of my journey as well.

And God only knows what the coming school year will hold. I hold my faith in Jeremiah 29:11 – “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.”