Announcing My Entirement

I hereby announce my entirement.

The entirety of life opens before me, beckoning me to live out the fullness of my callings.  So, effective 9/2/22, I'll retire from the University of Southern California, where I've served with joy as Senior Associate Dean of Religious and Spiritual Life for the past 14 years.  I expect to come to the USC campus about once a week after I retire, as I plan to maintain some projects there.  I am giving up my little studio apartment near campus, and will live in Ojai full-time.

I look forward to more time with my dear wife, Roberta.  I look forward to fuller grandparenting: all four of our grandkids live in LA, within an easy drive of Ojai.  I look forward to hiking in the wilderness around Ojai every day.  (During Covid lockdown, I got hooked!)  I look forward to making a lot more artwork.  (I'm having my first show of my compositions with scrap metal on wood at the USC Wrigley Center at Catalina Island - I mounted the show outdoors a few weeks ago.)  I look forward to more writing projects.  I look forward to traveling to visit family and friends, and exploring much more of the outdoors in the great Southwest and beyond.

I look forward to investing more time in two major projects.  I’ll be serving as the Executive Director of Progressive Christians Uniting on a part-time basis, organizing a new national network of progressive Christian campus ministries, and building out my new resource for families, SOULJOURNING.org, for the nurture of the natural spirituality of people 0-21.  I welcome your input on both efforts!  You'll be hearing a lot more about them.

I feel entirely good about my decision!  I love my job.  I love the students I serve.  I love the community around me at USC.  It's not that I was eager to leave, but rather that I am eager to move on to new adventures.  I'm privileged to be able to do so at this point in my life. 

Entirement seems like a much better description of the chapter of my life I'm entering, because I am not retiring from engagement from the world.  There are parts of me that yearn to be rounded-out and expressed, in order to serve others in new ways.  Now's the time to make it all happen.

And I look forward to being able to spend more time with you, dear members of my "musings" community - both online and in person!

(See more of my "musings" here...)