It is worth remembering that three years ago as I began my ministerial relationship at KVUUC, over 30 members gathered to consider a covenant.  Out of that meeting came these words:

We therefore do Covenant with one another

To –    Welcome Bill as our Minister and to walk together with a sense of shared responsibility for each other and our community.

To –    Be mindful of Bill’s part time status as our Minister and his wider obligations.

To –    Speak kindly and listen carefully.

To –    Strengthen our understanding and appreciation for the tenets of our faith and to honor those tenets in our thoughts, words and deeds.

To –    Cultivate trust through humility, honest and open communication, a willingness to forgive and respect for confidentiality.

To –    Work, give and help as we are able for the benefit of our community and each other,

To –    Challenge each other to grow spiritually and intellectually.

To –    Laugh a whole lot.

Starting with the welcoming and continuing to the laughing part, I hereby proclaim that you guys did a damn good job in living and keeping these covenants with me and with each other.  And some major transitions have been navigated and KVUUC is well.  And I am so grateful!

People ask me what I am going to do in a few weeks in my afterlife.  My honest response is “I’m not exactly sure.”  Except, I do intend to make up some overdue time enjoying my three granddaughters, and sweet Frances.  She and I are going to spend more waking up with the birds as we meander in our “A-Liner”, a little camping trailer we have never had the time to fully appreciate.  I have plans this Fall to walk the 258 miles of the Camino de Santiago in Spain that I didn’t do before.  I want to become more involved in choral singing and may fool around with our piano.  In short, life is rich.  I prefer the Spansh word “jubilacion” to the English “retirement.”  As T. S. Eliot says:  “In my end is my beginning.”

With love and gratitude,

Rev. Bill