A very different kind of summer. For the first time in 16 years it is not time to start preparing for Gloria to go back to school. I know it is a really different summer for her, looking for a job and just beginning to realize that for the first time in her memory September does not mean school. But for us too, it is a big change. This time it is me starting school. I am taking a tax class at H & R Block. It may not sound that exciting, but I have high hopes for it. The class is fairly intensive, it is 84 hours of class instruction in under 3 months, and University of Phoenix (I know!) allows 4 credit hours if you choose to go down that path. But the goal is to learn to do taxes and hopefully get a part time job at Block during tax season. All presuming that I like doing this -- I expect to, but one never knows.

Work is in transition too with the two projects I have been working on finishing. One is nearly there, just in the last phase of close down. The other will be finished in October or November, depending on how much post-deployment activity there is. I will be moving to a different role, and I look forward to new and very different challenges there. So for me, Fall is a time of starting up, of transitioning.

But there are some other large goals in front of me too. The first is all around health. I have started a yoga class - very light duty for a yoga enthusiast, but for me it is a pretty big deal. And focussing on exercise most days of the week, eating healthier and trying to get control. I am doing a combination of walking on a treadmill, preparing for a walk for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention at the end of September, and yoga and aerobics. This will require me to exercise self discipine more than exercising my body! I don't mind grey hair and wrinkles, but creaking joints and lack of energy can be combatted.

The final front is a spiritual dimension. For too long I have been allowing myself to drift, dissatisfied with my church, letting my spiritual practices lag, feeling the tug of inertia. It is time to take my faith journey back into my own hands and find a source of energy. After talking about it for quite a while, last week Joy, Gloria, Sonja and I visited Urban Village, a new church started in the spring downtown. We all came away eager to go back, excited about a sermon series on the book of Genesis. I have been feeling that my church demands little spiritually, it has not provided me with the structure and accountability I long for. I am in a covenant group that supplies some of that, but we only meet monthly and it is possible to slip a long way in a month. I found that I came away from Sunday's service at Urban Village feeling energized and clear that the responsibility for my journey is in my hands. I was challenged and excited. This Sunday we are going back, and are interested to hear what the sermon on sin brings. Sin is rarely discussed in the contemporary church, it might demand us to change in some way. Feelgood church is not about change, it is about 'do your own thing and that's ok'. Perhaps we could also put some flowers in our hair and head for San Francisco......... the 70's live!

At any rate, all around me, everywhere I look there is a goal, a challenge, a chance to change and grow, to improve. I look forward to this time and am committed to sticking with it and taking charge of my life.