“Let us rise up and be thankful…”  I’m thankful to my beloved community at WSUU for the kindness, support and love you consistently demonstrate to me, our membership and our new friends.  A special thank you to our staff for unfailingly giving more than your job description requires.  Alex, Shannon, Cynthia and Bert — a thousand thank yous.  Thanks, too, to our chaplain, Mark Newton—a source of strength and compassion we have all benefitted from.  Thank you to Viv Monahan for chairing our 2018 Auction.  Viv jumped in beyond the last minute with the creative enthusiasm we have come to expect from this remarkable woman.  There are far too many people who deserve to be thanked to list in one short column.  However, this I know — this community provides music and services that inspires us weekly.  This community makes sure our building continues to warm us and shelter us.  This community loves our children enough to teach them and watch out for them.  This community brings food when someone is too sick to cook for themselves.  This community reaches out into our broken world.   This I know and your service and hearts are truly appreciated.

“…for if we didn’t learn a lot today, at least we learned a little,…”  I am aware that I learn something new everyday and no more so than since I was elected to the Board of Trustees at Westside.  I’m learning how to manage my time, to work with an amazing group of people, to try to listen more than to speak, and to take a long breath instead of to simply (and usually, wrongly) react.  I strongly suspect I will continue to have the opportunity to learn something new at least once every day.

“…and if we didn’t learn a little, at least we didn’t get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn’t die;…”  I didn’t die.

“…so let us all be thankful.”  And I am.  And because we’re all in this together, Blessings this Season of Gratitude