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<div align="center"><font face="Verdana">Esteemed Colleagues,</font></div>

<div align="center"><font face="Verdana">I value our continued community. Here's my annual letter.</font></div>

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<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">As healthy and active as ever, I became old in this, my 79</span><span style="mso-spacerun:'yes'; font-family:Verdana; font-size:8.0000pt; mso-font-kerning:1.0000pt; vertical-align:super; ">th</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"> year,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">perhaps because of living in the same house for half my life.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Everywhere I looked, I saw the past peeking through:</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">open school campuses, now with high locked gates;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">houses, including my own, where the dear departed used to live;</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">almost empty churches where I once worked and worshiped.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Playing time traveler became a habit.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I enjoyed the melancholy it evoked,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">until yesterday, when a stern inner voice said,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">“Stop this game! Life is in the present moment.”</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Awakening, I saw a bougainvillea flaming in brilliant sunshine.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I treasure my time of solitary prayer and meditation, and</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">shared ceremonies which mark the days, moons and seasons.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I’m grateful for study with wise teachers in vast virtual classrooms</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">and for community service promoting art, feeding my spirit.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">When I see my sons and their families pursue their dreams and</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">celebrate their journeys, it fulfills my own life’s vision.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I pray we keep our hearts open and light in spite of the daily news.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:150%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">I revere the babe in the manger, the carpenter who healed,</span><span style="font-family: Verdana;"></span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:200%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">the Cosmic Christ and the Mother and Father of All.</span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:200%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Love and blessings</span></div>

<div class="MsoNormal" style="word-break:break-all; text-align:center; line-height:200%; background:rgb(255,255,255); "><span style="font-family: Verdana;">Jann McGuire</span></div>
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