I Hate Farewell Parties; (but...)

.... last evening I went to one.  My old "Just Faith" group at Trinity had a small dinner party to say goodbye to me, and I took Aunt Poo along.  It was lovely, in fact; wonderful to see those dear people gathered in one place again, and delightful to hear their kind words and good wishes.  A special gift of the evening was the fact that a couple who had become estranged from the group due to a tough misunderstanding at the end of our year together, came to the party and were welcomed, reconciled in their own hearts, and re-engaged into the friendships.  It was a nice "cap" to my process with them.

Yes, it is hard in a way to leave Santa Barbara.  Teri mentioned that my siblings must be reminded of the times they saw us packing to leave for much further distances -- the East Coast, Europe -- but I hope they (and all our friends here) know that we are not going that far away this time, and that we'll be back down here, haunting them, often enough.