Reflections on first 13 years of retirement
What an enjoyable experience ‘retirement’ is , or can be .
It’s just over 13 years since Ruth and I left Tawstock , in rural North Devon, where I was Vicar both of Tawstock and within a team of 11 parishes .
We had been in Devon since 1982 (when I came down to finish off my short service commission as an RAF Padre at RAF Chivenor) moving into the Rectory at Tawstock in 1984.
It was from there that we retired to nearby Torrington in 2010 . We felt quite ‘Devonian’ by then and having made a lot of friends in those 28 years it felt prayerfully right to stay where we had been so happy (with challenging and sad times too, of course)
When we retired ( I say we because Ruth was such an important part of my ‘ministry’ and very much loved and appreciated in the parishes) I was encouraged , both by the parishioners and the Diocese, to write a few ‘memories’. Countryfolk are quite ‘laid back’ when it comes to getting things done-sometimes- and we had imbibed this relaxing way of living too.
Hence the ‘memories’ did not get written for some time and, by the time I had started putting pen to paper, a good friend who helped in our literacy projects for our charity (www.bookreliefuk.org) and had built our website suggested a ‘memories’ website.
It was such fun working with Nigel Wright to build a website about rural ministry and especially Tawstock. So to the title encapsulating two . for me , very central parts of our spiritual and Christian walk with God.
Trivial Round , Glory on the Way (www.trgow.net) , our ‘memories’ website, tried to capture some of the feel of rural ministry-which , of course, is centred around the community and Jesus’ Way (John 14:6) of following Him in the ways of loving service both to God and that community (Matt.22:36-40)
Summarising the benefits of these last 13 years
- Spaciousness –not being tied to a long list of things to do, people to visit ,meetings to attend ++ and so having extra time to spend in just ‘being’ Favourite Bible verse summing this up for me
In His Presence is Fullness of Joy (Ps. 16:11)
- Enjoyment of study , especially now ‘online’ .Our daughter asked me on my 75th birthday if I could share any wise words
‘Yes, Rachel, be a lifelong learner’
I have since , with Nigel’s help, added a new area to trgow
with title of ‘My curious life’
- Appreciating others –perhaps more, perhaps just having more time
before rushing off to the next job, appointment etc
This, for me , has started with being able to be with Ruth so much more
and percolated through to immediate family and now such a lovely variety of people I meet
(formally and informally)
- Involvement with Quakers-this started very occasionally when there was a free Sunday by attending a local MfW and has now been able to become regular most Sundays.
(still ‘helping out’ churches though where needed)
About 5 years ago God impressed upon me
‘John, now is the time to learn a little more about Being’
hence being an attender at our local Friends Meeting (Bideford)
- Learning about Quakers—several enjoyable courses at Woodbrooke(Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham)
Involvement with the Quaker Universalist Group as committee member and publications distributor.
- Various other ‘involvements’
A small literacy charity of which I was chairman
for many years (Home (bookreliefuk.org)
Director of small Arts Company (Wolf and Water)
(Wolf + Water Arts Company – Using the arts as a tool for personal and community development (wolfandwater.org)
Committee member of The Lifestyle Movement
(The Life Style Movement – Sustainable Living – Live simply so all may simply live)
I hope this gives a flavour of what, for me has been such a happy 13 years
and the new way of being that it has brought with it.
I have found many spiritual teachers to help me in this. One of them ,Richard Rohr talks a lot about this , in his book ‘FallingUpwards’ (A Spirituality for the Second Half of Life)
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John Carvosso -July 2023
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