It has been two years since we officially retired from our call as ministers of 1st Congregational United Church of Christ in Rapid City, South Dakota. In some ways the two years have gone by very quickly. We spent the first four months sorting, downsizing, packing moving and selling our house. It took us another year before we found a home to purchase and ended up here in Birch Bay, Washington. It will be a little more than three months before we will have been in this house for a year.

It takes time to get used to the changes. When I think of all that has happened and the life that we left behind, what I miss the most are the people. We have so many friends both people in the church and those in the wider community. I will always think of Rapid City as a place that is full of very good people. I don’t want to idealize the community. There were frustrations. The politics of South Dakota went in ways with which we often disagreed. But it is a place with some very good people who are very good friends.

I miss my role in the community. After 25 years of serving in Rapid City, I knew a lot of people and was well known. I always ran into folk that I knew when I was out and about in the town. Here I go to the grocery store and know only the names of store employees who wear name tags. I don’t yet have shared stories with the people in our town. I am getting to know some of the people in our congregation and I appreciate their grace and friendship, but it will take time for me to feel at home in the same way as I did in Rapid City.

There are plenty of other things that I miss. Most of the time, however, I don’t dwell on the things that I miss. There is plenty to do here. I have lists of undone chores. There are still boxes to sort and things to unpack. I have a list of home repair tasks that is always a part of owning a home. I have work to do and people to meet. Still, there are times when I take a few moments to allow myself to miss some things of the past.

I miss having deer in our yard. There are deer around here, and we have seen a few in Bellingham near the church, but we haven’t seen any in our yard. In Rapid City fawns were born right in our back yard most years and we got to watch them grow up and recognized individuals.

Still, we live in an amazing place with amazing animals. The sea is alive with animals that we never saw in Rapid City such as sea stars and crabs and clams. We were even able to see migrating gray whales from the shore on a couple of occasions. Yesterday we took a walk and were able to watch quite a few animals including:

• Great Blue Herons - more than a dozen
• Crows - too many to count
• Seagulls - too many to count
• Deer - with a fawn in spots
• Harbor seals - five or six
• A Bald Eagle
• Shore Birds
• Black Squirrels
• Rabbits

This is not a lonely place. It is filled with all kinds of creatures. Some, like the deer and rabbits are familiar to us. Others like harbor seals and black squirrels are new to us and we have much to learn about their behavior. We saw great blue herons around Rapid City and I’ve taken pictures of the birds at area reservoirs, but I never saw more than a dozen in a single outing and I never learned where they nested. Here we know the location of at least two different heron rookeries.

Our area has gray, red and black squirrels. The black squirrels are a relatively rare sub group of the gray squirrels, their fur distinctively black. They have migrated to our area from farther north in British Columbia where increasing numbers of gray squirrels have disrupted their normal patterns and altered their territory.

Harbor seals are common all along the coastline and can be found both north and south of our region. They are intelligent and curious and can often be seen around marinas and other places with lots of people. Yesterday we saw a group of them in Drayton Harbor at the edge of the marina, just a few feet off of the shore along which we were walking.

We’ve made some small changes in our diet since we moved. Our new home has two cherry trees in the back yard. One of them is filled with cherries. We have joked that the crows can pick all of the cherries they want from the top of the tree where they are hard for us to reach, the grandchildren can pick all they want from the lower branches, and there will still be plenty for us in the middle of the tree. The grandchildren spit the seeds into the yard, but the crows have gotten into the habit of leaving them on the back deck, a practice that means a bit of cleanup for me. Still it is amazing to have fresh fruit grown in our yard. And just down the road at the farm the orchard boasts apples, pears, and plums which will be coming on soon. There are already strawberries growing and a few blueberries are ready to harvest, with a lot more coming on in the next few weeks. Raspberries and blackberries will follow in abundance. There will be fruit for eating, fruit for freezing, fruit for drying and fruit for sharing with birds and other creatures.

We are also enjoying living close to the source of abundant seafood. We’ve always enjoyed eating seafood, but now we don’t have to feel guilty about the distance it has to travel before it gets to us. We can buy crabs, clams, salmon, oysters and halibut fresh from the boats that have never been frozen or flown on airplanes.

As we walk through this life we are still looking both forward and backward. We are intrigued by what is coming while we miss what has been. Our lives are filled with meaning and being close to our son and his family with nearly daily doses of grandchildren is a delight. Life is good even on the days when we are missing the place we used to live.