Retirement - The Joy Continues

 June 1, 2025 I am retired! Yahoo! I have been waiting for this day for a long time. We had a most wonderful retirement celebration at Open Door UCC (formerly First Congregational UCC) last Sunday. If you get a chance, check it out on the church's website under the Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3yvgPOqT64

It was a love feast and many tears and joys! The church gave Daryl and I some beautiful books of letters they created and also a gorgeous photograph of church members and the church building. The children made a book for us too! We are still reveling in the celebration and love shared there.

So many people are asking me what I plan to do in retirement. My answer is play and spend time with Daryl and family and friends. I plan to "be" rather than "do." A lot of folk already have my life planned out for me - oh you will get involved in volunteer work, you will preach somewhere, you will serve on a board. Hm, I am not even the slightest bit interested in planning my life that way.

I had a funny thing happen this week that illustrates how silly planning and trying to predict life can be. Daryl and I love camping and I am one who loves decorating a beautiful dinner table no matter where we are. However, sometimes the wind does not want to assist my fine design. It whips up the tablecloth and the napkins. I discovered that if I put rocks on the table, it solves the problem. However, it doesn't exactly suit my fancy of having a gorgeous table setting. So one day while camping in Oregon on the coast, I discovered the most beautiful rocks. I gathered a whole bag of them. For years now I have been carrying them around - just in case I camp at a place that doesn't have beautiful rocks.

I forgot all about them until this week when I was cleaning out the RV to get ready to take a cross country trip the latter part of this month. "What the heck is this heavy thing?" I asked Daryl as I held it up. "It's your rocks," he said. "Remember you got them to put on the table." I busted up laughing. "You have got be kidding me," I said. I actually thought there would be a dearth of rocks! You see, my life for many years has been wrapped up in planning, administrating, organizing and implementing. It seems as if even my vacation camping was filled with preparing for God knows what! 

The rocks ended up in the beautiful rock garden in our home in Arnold which was sold to a new owner. They have found a place where they can shine and be noticed, not in a bag in the basement of my RV!

I tell you this because I do not plan to gather rocks for a beautiful table. My table will be filled with memories of you all, with new dawns and God calling my name, saying, Bonnie Lee what shall we do today? Whom shall we love today? I'm excited to discover what God will send my way to help me praise Her more. Of course I must add that sleep and going to the beach are high on the list.

I do not know of life without having to set an alarm, check emails and texts and put a schedule together for worship and preaching. It sounds amazing. I am surely going to have joy in this journey of retirement and love will reign at our table! Dancing my way to Myrtle Beach! Bonnie Lee

P.S. Some of you have asked about the logistics of our move. We fly to Myrtle Beach on June 3 and will be there for several weeks. Once the moving van has arrived and we are settled a bit, we will fly back to California and pick up our RV and truck and drive them across country. 

Dancing in the Rain!  Oh my dear ones, I had great ideas of writing each day on our trip and keep you all abreast of what is going on, but life has been a whirlwind and I was just not able to write. So now I will catch you up to date. It's pouring rain today and so on my lunch break I decided to give this a whirl! 

We bought a house in Loris, South Carolina which is 25 minutes from the Beach. It is a little west of Myrtle Beach in a new development, out in the country and we just love it! We had to make two trips back East to get it all done but we are pleased to have the keys to our new home. Our little Scion is actually parked in the garage! 

That is big news to be sure but I have to tell you that I had the most unusual experiences that have enriched my life. Daryl says I must have a sign on my forehead that say, "Talk to me, I am here for you."

On one of our plane trips, the woman next to me started crying, rather forcibly. "Are you okay?" I asked her. "No I am not," she said. "My father died." "I'm so sad for you," I responded. "Was it sudden?" "No, it's complicated," she answered. She went on to tell me the story. "He lived in California and I live in Virginia and he died two months ago and I didn't know anything about it till last week. My brother lived with him and cleaned out the house and the money and finally told us when we couldn't get an answer from my dad. We didn't talk often because my dad was an alcoholic and it was a broken relationship."

For the next hour and a half she poured her heart out. She kept saying, "I'm so sorry to be crying to you. "It's okay," I assured her. "Tears are healing and you are grieving and I am here for you." We bonded and blessed each other.

My journey is also filled with people, well complete strangers really, who bless me too! While going for an appointment at Stanford recently, just I was about to enter the building a women stopped me. "Wait, she said, "I have something for you!" I looked startled because I did not know her. "Here," she said, "this is for you," and she handed me a stone in the shape of a heart. "I want you to know you are loved!" With that she placed a stone in my hand. "Everyone needs to know they are loved," she proclaimed and then she left and I stood with the amazing gift. I was stunned, amazed and thrilled that an individual would just burst out with love like this. I am so sick of hearing all the angry rhetoric lately and this was like a piece of sweet chocolate after a fast! 

Of course I could not keep this stone to myself, so I passed it on to someone at church, who then passed it on to someone, and it is still going. We are spreading the love!

Now one incident like that can carry me for many days, but I had another one! We flew into the airport in Myrtle Beach and they used golf carts to transport us from the parking lot to the terminal. It was almost midnight and so we had to call someone. Sure enough, very promptly a boisterous man arrived with his cart. He acted as if we were VIPS's. "I got the bag," he said, "no lifting for you," he told Daryl and me. We engaged in delightful conversation and he put our bags in the back of our car. 

"Oh wait," he said as I handed him a tip. "I have something for YOU. He pulled out a little figurine of Jesus. "Here," he said, "this will bless you!" It was the cutest little thing - about an inch in size and fit in  the palm of my hand. "This is great," I said, "I'm a pastor and I will share it with my children at church." "Here you go, have some more and he gave me three more." Daryl and I got in our car and I just burst out laughing! "I got a miniature Jesus in my hand." I said. "I guess I can carry him with me wherever I go. A good reminder of the love of God and others!" The ironic thing is that since we got home and have been getting our house ready to sell, I have misplaced them. My Jesus is lost! Not really, because he is so alive in my heart and apparent in the many people I meet everywhere I go!

So I've decided to find love everywhere I can. I don't want to seem indifferent to the sorrows many are facing and the political dilemma in which we find ourselves and yes I am writing to my senators and representatives who seem to have no backbone at all, but really love is the key.

We change the world with our love, our caring hearts, our joyful gratitude for the earth and its people. This morning I was not grateful for our country's leadership so Jesus and me had a chat. Still not grateful, but I did pray that our leaders will not sleep a wink until they do the right thing by the immigrants and much more! Okay, I know that sounds vindictive but that's where I am. I know - maybe when I find my Jesus, I'll send one to them or a heart of love!  I have to do something and I think it's a better option than being mean or afraid.

There are two mottos I have in life - you already know the one - "Joy in the Journey" but the other one is "I choose to live in Faith, not fear." Matthew 6:24-34 is my mantra and Daryl has written a song with them so I sing it alot. 

Perhaps you are not able to have faith and that is okay. I love you and will wrap you in my prayers and heart. As I continue to do my chemo maintenance and see the doctors at Stanford, I am grateful for your loving support that holds me up when I am weary. Everything seems to be good at the moment and I feel great! It's a good thing too because I am madly packing! 

Ministry with my parish continues to be a delight and we are growing even as I prepare to leave. Our folk are so amazing and incredibly full of compassion so it's a beautiful thing to experience this in my last two months with them. 

May your day be full of blessing and hope. YOU ARE LOVED! Pastor Bonnie

Thursday March 6 Searching for our new home

 We had a good time with our daughter and son in Fayetteville NC and helped Jordan get settled in his new apartment. Now we are in Myrtle Beach and ready to do some house hunting. Many of you have been asking if we have a house so let me explain our process a bit.

We will actually not buy a house on this trip. We are planning to build a new home so we are looking at models and sites. We will sell our home in California first before we purchase a home here. It will take about three months to build a house here.

No worries, we won’t be without a place to live! We have our RV and I love my rolling home! I have such fun nesting in there! Plus once we are ready to move we are going to drive it across the country! It is going to be fantastic! 

So back to the house buying plan. We will hopefully get our home on the market in early April. Once we have a signed contract on our home, the builder will let us purchase a home in Myrtle Beach. Does it sound a little up in the air? Absolutely but that’s just part of the adventure! My mantra of one minute at a time still serves me well. God is gracious and calms my spirit and Daryl and I pray for wisdom everyday. 

In the meantime we plan to head to the beach today! We drove through horrendous rain storms yesterday but it is glorious today! (By the way, the fires are no longer a threat and not near where we are going to live.)

We still have much to do with our sweet parish when we return! Our little church continues to grow, we are going to be receiving our confirmands on Easter, and Lent is here. We are so blessed to be in ministry with such wonderful, loving people!

I have purposely not watched the news as my brain, my soul and my body need a break from it. I do continue to pray fervently for those who are harmed by the recent actions of the leadership. One of our own people in the parish has lost his job because of the federal firings(or whatever you call them.) how tragic. 

The only way I can deal with all this is to live by faith and not by fear. I’m still sending emails to my representatives but the replies I get are of little comfort. 

Today, my dear ones, know I love you and hold you in my heart! Joy in the journey! (Thanks to our daughter, this is a view from our hotel room!)

We went to Corky’s! February 28 Friday

Vacation is great fun, especially when you can eat a variety of foods. See that picture above?That was our dinner at Corky‘s. DARYL found this restaurant and it was listed as one of the top eight barbecue places to eat in Memphis Tennessee. It did not disappoint. Its Elvis theme was fun and the atmosphere was rather like a party. 

As you can see, we had a slab of ribs part of it dry and part of it wet. (I had to ask what that meant!) then it came with pulled pork, brisket, pulled chicken, Cole slaw and baked beans. They topped it off with fantastic homemade rolls. Oh my it was divine. Now Daryl and I, knowing we were going to be doing a lot of sitting in the car the next day, ate in moderation. We packed over half of it to take for the next day.

So feeling quite comfortable we were ready to pay our bill when the waiter said, “Now y’all not from here, and you just gotta have some of the best banana pudding in all of Tennessee. Why that just is the perfect ending to a good rib meal!” He began to describe it and I suddenly had flashbacks of my childhood in the south and that homemade pudding. “ We make it right here,” he said. Daryl and I looked at each other and said okay we gotta do it.

Oh my, I am still dreaming of that banana pudding today! Vanilla wafers, rich divine banana pudding, “just right” ripe bananas and real whip cream on the top! It was heavenly, but by now we weren’t sure we could pull ourselves out of the chairs. 

We waddled our way back to the hotel with our leftover goodie bag. I wish I could tell you we slept deeply and long, but alas the food kept speaking to us. It was a bit of a trial and tums and sprite quickly became our friends! So no we did NOT eat the leftovers for lunch. We ate mildly all day and very little. However,was it worth it? Absolutely! I would do it all over tomorrow night if I were in Memphis but alas we are headed to Fayetteville NC tomorrow and I’m sure biscuit gravy and grits will be waiting! Happy eating!

A hilarious day, February 28

 OK, my dear friends you certainly are all welcome to correct me when I am wrong. DARYL and I realized this morning about halfway through our trip to Tennessee that Ash Wednesday is next week. We fairly danced at the rest stop when we realized it. Just think, we can eat donuts every day now through Mardi Gras till next week! Although we haven’t had a single one yet! I think we were just so confused by day after day of driving that we didn’t know what week it was. Of course, that means we’re having a grand time and aren’t really thinking about regular activities. So we had Ash Wednesday a week early. What will we do next week? I’m not sure. Stay tuned. Maybe we needed a time of repentance early! 😂

But that isn’t all that happened to make today funny. First of all, we drove through Oklahoma and Arkansas and then to Tennessee. A lot of the landscape look like Pennsylvania and yet we did not see many very large farms. In Oklahoma, they were dried up lakes, and in Arkansas there was flooding. We did however get to see the Ozark mountains. I have never been in the Ozark mountains, so that was a gem of a trip. No time to hike them and actually they’re only about 2500 feet in elevation. Seems tiny compared to Big Bear but I still loved it. 

The funny story developed as we pulled into our hotel. I went in to get us registered, and DARYL was unloading the car. The young lady checked me in and said to me, “ Is he with you?” motioning to the man behind me. I did not look around, but said , “yes that’s my husband.”  She said, “Oh great, then would you like an upgrade to an executive suite rather than two beds?” I turned around to ask DARYL what he thought and realized that the man standing there was not my husband. The man started laughing. He said “Yeah when you told her I was with you, I wasn’t sure about that but I went along with it.” “Oh my goodness,” I said “I am so sorry.” We all laughed and I said “I got a new husband at the Fairfield hotel!” About that time DARYL came in and I said “DARYL, meet my new husband.” He looked a tad confused until I explained to him what had happened and he just shook his head. 

The adventure continued when we came back as he was in the same elevator as us. We got off on the same floor and you will not believe this, but his room is directly across from ours. “Oh no,” I said “there could be trouble.”  He just busted up laughing! 

Oh the predicaments I get myself in. That’ll teach me to not turn around and look who’s behind me. But it sure made for a good laugh after a long day and a lot of fun with complete strangers. But all in all I’m sticking with my sweet husband, DARYL. He puts up with me and all my shenanigans and loves me deeply!  Just one of the many adventures we have together! May you all laugh some today! 

Thursday February 27 A Dilemma and a Blessing

Today’s drive through Texas and Oklahoma was drab. I just couldn’t settle in with the miles and miles of dirt and flat land. Brown trees and darkness everywhere, except the sky of course, which was a magnificent blue the whole day. We did get to see some red hills but I missed taking pictures because I was so focused on finding out what their compositions. I’m told the Native Americans called them Medicine Hills because of their high concentration of epsom salts. But that was about as interesting as it got.

So my dilemma, how does one love God’s beautiful earth and yet find it, well a little sad? You know me, I’m used to living among the tall green pines, redwoods and cedars with their elegant branches, cuddling my days. I cherish the terrain changes as I drive from Arnold to Murphys each day. Turkeys, foxes, coyotes, deer and bear sneak around to my great delight. So I felt a little discombobulated by this flat land. I said to Daryl, “It would be rude to tell someone they live in a boring place, wouldn’t it?” “ Well yes,” he agreed “and it’s God’s good earth.” I like to be so positive but really I’m at a loss here. It reminds me of a saying I had in my locker when I was in high school. “Kindness and truth go hand in hand, but where the two diverge and collide, kindness should override truth.” This is one of those times!

Daryl said it reminded him of Lent- barren, stark, and open for us to see ourselves more clearly. Lent, a time of introspection and contemplation. I like that. It helped me see the land as inviting a new depth to my searching. As we reflected on Lent we realized that this was the first time in our married lives that we had missed attending an Ash Wednesday service. “From dust you came, to dust you shall return.” Well, I saw plenty of dust today and let me tell you, I prefer to be alive today! Thank you Jesus! I much prefer the “child of God” sign that Daryl makes on my forehead! 

As always though, it’s the people who make life a joy! When we stopped at one of the gas stations for a break and were doing our usual stretches, a young woman approached Daryl. “I see you are from California too. We are just leaving Orange County to move to Wilmington North Carolina,” she volunteered. “Unbelievable,” Daryl said. “We are moving to South Carolina!” They chatted a bit and she explained that it was just too expensive to live in California and they have family in the east. We had fun talking with them. They were adventurous! A young mom and dad with a teen son and a baby. They were going to drive it in three days! We felt bonded, travelers on the road together! 

This reminded me that our world is full of beautiful people. I know the state of our political situation is a mess right now, but everywhere we go we keep receiving loving kindness from just about everyone! Smiles abound, stories are shared, doors are opened, bathrooms are clean, the coffee is great (well most of the time) and we are bonded by a common will to live happily! A nation of kindness exists even when it doesn’t make the news! Let’s claim the goodness! 

We made it through our longest driving days and so just might get to linger in bed a wee bit longer! May your day be filled with kindness! Love to you all! 

A long drive

 Today was rather exhausting as we had a 10 Hour drive to Albuquerque. It was quite beautiful as we saw the Mesas and the rock formations, but after a while, following tractor trailer trucks and seeing the same thing does get a little boring. I am not easily bored, and the shifting of drivers was helpful for DARYL and me. So while there were not very many adventures outside the car, we certainly had our time together in our little Scion. We reminisced about our dating days and our early years of marriage when we  worship workshops. What fun we had! It is good to take time to remember these marvelous things.

When you’ve been married for as long as we have, it is still a joy to chat about things. As we were awestruck at the long trains along the way, DARYL and I thought of the song “Same Train”  that the chorus will be singing and we belted it out together. We also said Bible verses in the morning for our devotional time. I love singing the Scripture songs that DARYL has written. That helps keep them on my heart. 

The song that especially spoke to me today was this, “therefore, I tell you do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink. Is not your life more than food and your body more than clothing, do not worry about your life, do not fear.”

This song helped me through many days during my dealings with cancer and still does. It is easy to become frightful in these challenging times. But I know that God is with us and will walk with us through every trial. Sometimes when I’m sick in the morning from the chemo pills, I remember to thank God that I’m cancer free at the moment. Gratitude and trust enable us to continue to have joy. 

So even though I do not have much to report about the scenery or the ride, I will share that the blessings abound on our trip. May you have peace in your path today, love Bonnie.