And so, a new life begins!  In this cold of mid-winter in D.C. our new life of retirement starts today.

It’s hard to think about what retirement will be like before it is actually here.  No one knows what the future will be like.  And we can’t begin to guess.  We can only dream.  But one thing we do know, as Hans Christian Anderson wrote many years ago:  “Every person’s life is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.”  And so shall our retirement be – a fairy tale written by God’s fingers with grace in every stroke.

To celebrate, we took a walk in the cold and ice of yesterday.  Despite the weather, it was a beautiful day, filled with grace and a little snow.  We could see the buds beginning to form on the cherry trees around the tidal basin and we knew that the promise of spring is not far off.  New life is not far off for the cherry trees and new life and grace will be there for us as well.  Indeed, every person’s life and every day is a fairy tale written by God’s fingers.

What grace does your story have to tell?