I spoke recently with a colleague who graduated from seminary the same year I did. When we met back then, I was twenty-five and she was fifty-two. Now I am coming up on fifty-five and she is eighty. We laughed a little about that and compared notes on our journeys as ministers.

We have celebrated similar achievements and struggled with similar challenges. I think we have both found a lot of personal satisfaction in our vocations, but there have certainly been some disappointments.

I valued her when we were doing similar kinds of work simultaneously and now I value her as she explores the experience of retirement and elder life.

May we all find and nurture friendships across the years in which the similarities and the differences are mutually enriching!

In wisdom and grace,

Rev. Ruth