Tuesday, January 7, 2020

The End of a Journey -- the Start of a Journey



Costa Rican Diary
The Great Escape to Pura Vida

Altos de Antigua
La Palma, Puriscal
San Jose, Costa Rica

December 29th was my last Sunday to celebrate Holy Eucharist at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church in Jacksonville, Florida. I had fully expected to serve the parish until my 70th birthday but once I passed that magical day of full retirement age it was harder and harder to answer the bell every Sunday morning, not to mention perform all the routine chores and decisions that are required of a solo clergy person in parish life. I was surrounded by smart and able-bodied staff and volunteers who love the church and supported their pastor in many wonderful ways. But in the end—in that final hour— no person ever has wished that they could have spent a little more time in the office.

My wife and I both ended our careers on the last day of the year 2019 and moved our household to Costa Rica. What follows is a diary or blog about our experiences during this journey. I am writing in near real-time so that my memories are fresh and clear with the hope that you who read and follow this adventure will feel empowered to make the similar decision—before it’s too late!

Much of what I write will be about the experiences we went through on this adventure. We hope to be able to offer insight which might be helpful to someone considering a similar journey. We want to be encouraging of the hopes and dreams you might have but not sugar-coat the ups and downs, the ‘goods’ and ‘bads’, the smart decisions we made and the knuckle-headed mistakes as well.

If all that we accomplish is to entertain you with our story of a couple nomads who left it all behind in search of a world full of beauty, peace, and love, that will be enough. How we did it, and what we might do differently—this is the story of our Great Escape to Pura Vida.


Hasta luego,  Father Mark