"Only connect"

This Sunday I said goodbye to two groups of people who have been special in my life in Michigan - my church and my dog park friends.

When I went to church on Sunday, I was touched and thrilled to find out that the women who work in the Hope Closet project had asked for the Pentecost quilt to be hung in the Sanctuary.  This is a quilt that I worked on with women from the church in celebration of the church's 50-year anniversary. It meant a lot to me to see it hanging on Sunday, since they usually only hang it on Pentecost Sunday.

During the service, Rev. Fred Graham asked me to come to the front of the church, and he read the following: "The Scriptures are filled with stories of people who have been called to move to new places: Abraham and Sarah, Mary and Joseph, Paul and Barnabas, Priscilla and Aquilla. Filled with uncertainty about what lay ahead, these people of God could not have found their moves easy. Yet they were also filled with excitement, trusting that God was calling them and guiding them to a new place. And now you, our beloved friend, are preparing to leave us and go to a new place, a new home, and a new church. As a part of this body of Christ over the past years, you have given of yourself in ways that we have appreciated and will miss. We ask God's blessing upon you as we lift our hearts in prayer."  After the service, many church friends came up to me to say goodbye and wish me well, many of whom I have known since I joined Eastminster 30 years ago.

After church, some of my dog park friends - Jeff, Julie and Jen - took me out to lunch at Woody's. We have known each other for many years of walking our dogs at area dog parks - at MSU Ag Expo where we first met, and then at Rose Lake and Soldans Park at Hawk Island.  During the years we've known each other, we've mourned the passing of our old dogs - Kita, Snickers, Coda - and enjoyed getting to know our new dogs - Sadie, Sam, Dora and Sola.  Sam and Sadie are getting greyer now (but then, so are Jeff, Julie, Jen and I...), marking the passing years of our long friendship.

With both groups - my church and the dog park - I arrived at both many years knowing no one and not anticipating the friendships that would arise from both.  Soon I got to know people at my church through shared activities - serving and cooking for Advent House, Deacons, bell choir, and other fellowship and mission activities. At the dog park, our dogs "self-selected" their friends, and we humans followed their lead and started walking together.  The best days were at Ag Expo when Sadie, Sam and Coda ran uphill and down - our Three Musketeers - while the rest of plodded behind with the slower dogs.  Looking back, I'm overwhelmed by the serendipity of getting to know these church and dog people who became my friends and have been important in my life.

During the past several weeks - and especially this Sunday - I have though often of E. M. Forster's final sentence of Howard's End, "Only connect." No matter what else I do in my life, it is my connections with other people that make everything worthwhile.  I feel lucky for my "connections" in Michigan, and I'm looking forward to new "connections" in Minnesota.  "Only connect."