“fast away the old year passes…”

Dear Friends,

As 2025 draws to a close my media feeds have been full of farewells to this year. Some are poignant tributes to people who in their lives made significant contributions to our lives. Other articles simply cite a litany of political, social, and personal ills related to war, bad calls, our continuing love-affair with weapons of any sort, and kick 2025 to the proverbial curb, as though wishing away the old makes it possible for the new to truly be a fresh start.

I grew up in a household tinged with some superstitions about the new year, and they all had to do with what you ate to bring luck. As a southerner, that meant oyster stew, stewed tomatoes, and black-eyed peas. (My siblings and I never liked the oyster stew part, but the stewed tomatoes and black-eyed peas were almost edible!)

As I ponder the year nearly ended, and the one to come, I find that what is most helpful is reflecting on what the year passing gave me/us, good and ill, and what that teaches me about embracing in a better way the year to come. (It’s also a whole lot easier than resolutions I will keep for less than a New York minute.)

In the year 2025 I said hello to all of you, a church with a remarkable heart for those whose fortunes are challenged, and who cared about children more passionately than I could have dreamt of. It helped that I met Poe, the Raven’s mascot in my first week of VBS. I have been able to become part of a team with the Grace staff and the Grace Early Learning Center staff. I have been able to work at a pace that allows me to be part of adult formation, as a teacher and learner. I have been taught an immense amount that’s new from all of you about being a smaller church and acting wisely because of our size. I have struggled with trying not to wish for more because it takes my eye and heart from the grace that is abundant and before me. I have reached an epic half century of marriage and now have outlived two of my grandparents. Amid the heart ache of too much gun violence, wars that seemingly are intractable, a country that needs a reboot in lots of ways, this is the short list of grace and hope that has sustained me and aids me in looking for the teachable moments in 2026.

This comes with my prayers for all of you that 2025 has prepared you in the best ways for 2026, and that each day of the new year will bring blessings regardless of the challenges you meet. Just in case there is a can of stewed tomatoes, and fresh black-eyed peas in my crisper for eating.

God's peace and keeping,

Mary +