Reflecting Back

& Moving Forward

If you hadn’t noticed, my bLOG schedule has been disrupted for the past several months. Some of you have missed the routine of reading HitchHiker bLOG (Tuesdays), Something to Think About (Fridays), TANKA Toyin’ (Sundays), and even the musings of Godzilla and deliveries from The Flying Scotsman. So let me fill you in by reflecting on my 2025 journey to help you see what this HitchHiker and his team have been up to.

From January to March, the significant disruption in the Space-Time Continuum can be summed up in two words: Sinkholes and Mayhem. Sinkholes began appearing in Wharton, NJ, on Route 80, disrupting commuter and commercial traffic as both sides of one of the most-traveled Interstates in the U.S.A. were closed. “J” was one of those commuters whose travel times more than doubled (her 25-mile commute would routinely be 90 minutes or more). This dramatically affected the household.

Then Mayhem arrived! ‘Nuff said!

Then came April 1st. You need to understand that I was actively searching from late 2023 through September 2024, coming close with two positions. One selected someone else, and the other I stepped away from. I stopped searching after the latter, but kept my profile in the system (they are a bear to write). Last week of March, I received an email from the system telling me I had to recertify or it would be erased. I went in to do just that.

Throughout my career, whenever this New Englander would go into the system, I would check whether any full-time positions in New England matched me; I call these the “unicorns” of our denomination. When I signed in on April 1st (no kiddin’), I did just that, and found a unicorn in New Hampshire! When “J” returned home that evening from her wonderful commute, I showed her the unicorn.

What made the unicorn especially strange was not only that it was a fit, but they had been searching for their next pastor since the middle of September 2024, the month I stopped looking (no kiddin’). I sent an email to that presbytery’s leader that night, asking whether they were close to calling a candidate or if they had any issues. The response was quick, stating that they were a good church that was basically starting their search over. The email also said, “Now is a good time to apply.” I took a few days to discern prayerfully, applied on April 4th, and by the 7th, I had an online interview scheduled for April 15th (in the middle of Holy Week).

On June 1st, the congregation voted me in as the third called and installed pastor of Kearsarge Community Presbyterian Church. Then I had to go back to New Jersey to tell the church family I had loved and served for 13 years that I would be leaving them in early July. The grief on both sides was palpable.

Need I say more? In the middle of 2025, I changed positions, purchased a home, dealt with movers, and much more. That hits several categories in those top 10 lists of stressors!

As I sit here on 2025.12.31 (New Year’s Eve), we’ve endured my wife’s jobhunting adventures, three measurable snowfalls totaling at least 19 inches, and one spectacularly beautiful ice storm that took out power for over 24 hours, a tree limb crashing down and blowing out the rear window of our newest car, and two opportunities to heat our house with only a fireplace. We have grieved, celebrated, screamed, laughed, danced, cried, let go, embraced, lost, and won.

Through it all:

42 has been in the mix!

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;

a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;

a time to break down, and a time to build up;

a time to weep, and a time to laugh;

a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;

a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

a time to seek, and a time to lose;

a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

a time to tear, and a time to sew;

a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

a time to love, and a time to hate;

a time for war, and a time for peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8