1st Saturday 'Breakfast on the Bernard' coming Saturday January 5th-details here Wednesday

Good-bye and Hello!

Here we are again, at a place it seems like only yesterday we were anxiously awaiting – a new year, and all that implies. We stand at a place where looking at what has happened before and what will happen seem to bear equal weight in our lives. We prepare for that first tentative step into a new year, but before we go on to the wonderful things that are in store for us in 2008, we linger over our farewell to 2007 – as we do with good friends whom we know we will never see again.

Looking back, 2007 was an eventful year for those of us who love the San Bernard. It allowed us a chance to address meet and greet with our local, state and federal officials about our river’s fate. It brought us another year without a hurricane strike and another year to enjoy the peace and tranquility of the river. It gave us the time to actively preserve the history and the wildlife of the area for the future. It brought us new friends, gave us a new Community Center home and extended our “river family”. And it brought us the most wonderful news that actions are being taken which will allow our river to once again feed itself through its own mouth. Good-bye 2007 – thank you for your visit and your gifts to our community. We won’t soon forget you.

Good-byes are always hard to say, but anticipation of an even better year in 2008 makes us turn our eyes to the future. A new year - a clean, blank sheet of paper on which to write our brand new story as only we can write it. Whatever happens in 2008, we will be writing history on that blank page and we should be aware of that obligation. We can choose to write something positive in this New Year that has never been written before- as a community. While we all live our own history every day, it isn’t often that a community is aware that they are living history that will be recorded for future generations. But 2008 brings us all that opportunity – and that obligation.

What’s happened in 2007 has prepared us all for the good things that are in store for us in 2008. But as we look forward to a bright new year, let’s not forget the old times and those who came before us and loved this place – that the past is tied to the future by the threads of our memory and our actions today:

So, here is a hand my trusted friend,
And give me a hand of thine.
We’ll take a cup of kindness yet
For Auld Lang Syne.

Grab that “cup of kindness” and drink deeply – the pages of history we all write in 2008 should be filled with respect and kindness for the river, and the community! Hello... and bring it on, 2008 !- we’re ready for you!