There is not enough space nor enough words to thank everyone who deserves gratitude. Thanks be to the Steering Committee for bold leadership; to the Committee on Ministry for large ears and larger hearts; to the Religious Education teachers for enlightening the children; to the Building & Grounds for the new parking lot, for mowing, painting, cleaning, and the dream of future expansion; to the Communications for sharing the news; to the Social Action for organizing your outreach projects with Habitat, Samaritan House, and Food Bank; to the Program for splendid Sundays; to Caring for quick and steady responses, to Membership for organizing orientations and steady growth.

May the blessings the Goddesses bestowed upon me return to them seven-fold! Thanks to Jill and Mike Fanning for my first excursion to Glacier Park and my last to Big Mountain - nice symmetry. Thanks to all the brides and grooms who trusted me with their celebrations. Thanks to the people who came for guidance; all I really did was listen to your own wisdom assert itself.

Thank you to everyone who graced this place with their presence

Thank you and "Hurrah" to those who will join in the work and fun during the coming year. Kahlil Gibran wrote: "When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music. To love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret. All work is empty save when there is love, for work is love made visible."

Now our ways part, and we move toward new things, different things, good things. I, to family and friends and the beautiful Japanese Garden in Rockford, Illinois. You, to a year of earnest search for your second minister and the usual discipline of tending the Chalice. The task now is to say "Good-bye" and let go. By "let go" I mean to erase any expectations about my colleague who will come to you next. S/he will bring you gifts and talents aplenty. For heaven's sake (and your own!) keep open minds and hearts and welcome him/her. You know how to do it! I let you go with good memories and no regrets.

I'll close with a thought from Julian of Norwich: All shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

Amen to that. So mote it be.

Good-bye.

Armida

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From the Side Door...

By Reverend Armida Alexander

It seems like only yesterday, and now it's time to go. GUUF is gearing up for another good year, and I am packing files, books, clothes, pots and pans. The July 6th service will be my last. The next Sunday, the 13th, I and some helpers will load the U-Haul with all that I have accumulated here. On Monday, my sister Bette arrives at Glacier International to help drive back to the Midwest, the place of our beginning and our home.