This is the Day that the LORD has made!

A new chapter is beginning for me, as I acclimate to recent seismic changes in my life: retirement from my spin-doctor job in Washington DC in April, leaving my family and my home of the last 20 years and moving to the ocean in May. My head is still spinning but I am anxious to open wide the door marked "Possibility."

My last days in Bowie were spent boxing up those items that no longer fit into the more simple life I hope to begin. In the end, I free-cycled most of it to family, friends and neighbors who could find some use or enjoyment from what I was leaving behind.

And to make this last week in Bowie just as complicated as I possibly could, I bought a new car -- a brand-spanking new '06 HONDA Ridgeline, the first p/up truck I've ever owned. It's a beaut, steel blue with a hint of teal... and rugged in a girlie kinda way, same as its new owner.

And although I've been retired now for nearly a month, I don't feel retired (whatever that may come to mean) because my life and days have been jam-packed finalizing my move, and in helping a dear friend deal with the news she has breast cancer. Everything I am experiencing right now, either in my own life or vicariously through the lives of close friends and family, reminds me that we do not own this life, and we are largely powerless to fend off CHANGE when it arrives, oftentimes unannounced at our door.

I have come to realize, however, that when we surrender control of the steering wheel, we usually end up in a far better place than we might have under our own white-knuckled control.

I am ready for that journey to begin.