I have no [non-emergency] clerical responsibilities for a few days, and it’s blowing my mind.
I remember when I was a full-time lecturer, how glorious end-of-term time was — even though I very often caught a cold the moment my academic responsibilities abated (as did my Dad before me). I remember church posts where I was exhausted after Holy Week and Easter, and indeed after Advent, carol services, and Christmas. But this year in particular the intricate pattern of varying ministries and tasks intersecting and conflicting, adding pressure and then just shifting it to the next event or duty, pressed particularly forcefully on me. Which is to say, to be honest, that I just wasn’t as good at planning and executing the foreseeable things (and was wrong-footed by the unforeseeable) as I ought to have been, as I have been in the past. Just another message saying, ‘This whole “retirement” thing might be for you, old man….’