At the end of the day, you hope most is made right. Perhaps, the good outweighs the bad. Taking rest knowing you have done everything you were given to do. You also hope you did all that was meant for you. One can rest, weary from work, but also glad for work. In the end, what is done is done.

We are coming out of seclusion, wearing masks and hoping to see babies born during the year and greet loved friends and family with relief and gladness. Stretch your arms, yawn for extra air to the brain. Gladness for the beginning, sadness for the having been separated, connected by blue screens, and feeling more like an audience than a participant. Loss cannot be forgotten. But how the sun shines after quarantine! We perch on the edge of things that seem so new but feel familiar.

It is like wearing Birkenstocks after your winter shoes; feet a bit exposed but the almost barefoot feeling is wonderful.

So what am I going on about? The change of seasons in our lives…

Christ City Church, if you have not heard, I am moving away. I am not sure where I will land, but I am up for the adventure. I have loved being a pastoral resident. I feel the sadness of leaving and the gladness of new callings. I hope you have felt me present with you in my writing, contemplating, and sermonizing. Mostly I hope, as I leave you, that you have felt seen and loved by me. I hope for a lot of things…

I hope Christ City Church continues being a safe space for people. I have taken in the extravagant love given by you as I have needed it. Often it seems my friends love me more generously than I love myself. I have felt that so many times in our community. May that generosity of love continue to grow in all of us…

Thank you for your patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, and love to me.

—Dianne