How could the monthly theme be any more appropriate for this time in the life of the Unitarian Fellowship of Peterborough? I celebrate how this theme has come along to bless us all!
As I prepare to leave you, here’s just a bit of what I’m celebrating:
• A long, trust-based, and shared ministry
• The ongoing use of Community Conversations to further our understanding and decision-making (with much gratitude to the trained facilitators who lead these conversations)
• Your generous and ever-present contributions of talents, time and treasure
• Your consistent good natures and optimistic outlooks
• A relatively low-stress ministry with you, allowing for us to tend to the fire, rather than putting out fires
• Your vision and open-minded exploration of a long-term relationship with Beth Israel Congregation
• The many, many, many ways that you’ve taught me how to be the best minister I can be (and I’m still learning!)
• The really really really beautiful love that you show to one another as well as to the greater community. It’s boundless, and it matters.

Recently I was gifted with a poem by Wendell Berry, “A Song Sparrow Singing in the Fall”. In it, Berry writes:

Somehow it has all
added up to song —
earth, air, rain and light,
the labor and the heat,
the mortality of the young.

Indeed, somehow it has all added up to song. You are indeed blessings that I will carry with me, singing and celebrating as I go.

Remember that the world needs more people like YOU, so carry on being the loving, kind, thoughtful, justice-seeking beings that you are!

I love you,
Julie