This first day of January holds greater significance over years past, because this will be the last ‘Happy New Year’ that Kindred Oaks will usher in. May 2nd of this year, we will host our last event.
So many folks have offered their sympathies, well wishes and heartfelt “that must be bittersweet” parting phrases and truth be told, the new year, like the old, will be a year of fresh beginnings, walking daily through unseen challenges and laying aside some of the heavier commitments that will allow new beginnings for others to embrace.
The cup is generally always half full, from my perspective, not because life is always dandy, but because God has given each of us the ability to choose to find joy, however limited, or get stuck in gloom. I do not make a good victim, and I’d rather instigate cause for someone to find a little sunshine rather than help them sit in the dark, so optimism it is. To that end, there was no time like the present to open up a new business, right?
We are thrilled to be next door to the church that will be purchasing the property with the venue, tending Lincoln Chapel and Zuzu’s Petals and the baby of the family, Kindred Botanical Market, coming in late February. A wholesale and retail floral company.
Steve and I opened Kindred Oaks in 2003 and here, 22 years later we will have overseen the ‘life-changing’ wedding celebrations of somewhere around 2,000 couples upon its closing. To hope that Kindred Oaks will live on in the memories of those families is the most one can hope for in a life’s work.
This will be a year of change to be sure. If the trees could whisper back what they’ve heard in all the countless vows uttered by and between young love and a promise, they would tell you that prayer was chief among the many who came to bear witness, perhaps by only a parent, an officiant or perhaps yet still, a whole entourage but know this; a prayer of blessing was spoken over every single union.
Continued prayers of hope and healing, of dreams and discovery, prayers of gratitude and grace, of purpose and promise will surely be whispered over this season as well. God willing, there is still work to be done.
Thank you for staying the course with us,
Elaine & Steve
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