Packing my bags

I'm starting to pack up for my move to Massachusetts about five weeks from now. In worship May 30th, I showed some of the things I'm packing in a special bag -- a bag full of memories, some of the things that will remind me of the people and community I have been part of these past four years at UUCA.

I'll take a copy of the photo directory, and from time to time I'll take it out, gaze at your faces and remember your stories.

I'll take all five of the little black books I've filled up with inspiring things you have said or questions I pondered or notes about what we have done together in the past four years.

I'll take every card the children here have made for me. They are very special!

This is a card made from a painting done by Peggy Fisher, one of the founders of this church. This will remind me of the wonderful elders in
this community, and also it will remind me how creative you are and how
strongly the arts are cherished and expressed in this church.

This is a book UUCA published some years ago telling the stories and showing the pictures of some of the residents of Culpepper Garden. Dave Tilson took all the pictures, and it will remind me of Dave, but it will also remind me of the powerful social justice history of this congregation. What a great thing you did when you made the vision real of this community where low-income seniors can live with dignity!

This is a picture Chris and John Sutton gave me of the worship service honoring the culture of indigenous Guatemalans. This picture was taken at the end of the service, when we all join hands, and you can see the dancers in their traditional dress holding hands with UUCA members. This is a vision for how we are all connected, across any difference of culture or background or ethnicity. It is a vision I hold in my heart for this Beloved Community of UUCA.

There are many more things that will remind me of you, every day. But the truth is, I don't really need a special bag of things to remind me of you. I carry you with me, every one of you, not in my bag but in my heart.