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One year & 10 days out -- thanks to you ...

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Good mid-morning, all y'all. This is my last mass email to my pre- and post-halfway house list. After the last one I sent (asking you folks to send emails one last time for our TN Voter Confidence Act), a number of you wrote back to ask to receive future emails from me that will be part of a new writing project. (You can still sign on to that new journey if you haven't already by writing me back to say you want my emails to continue.) For all of you, however, I wanted to end this mass communication by thanking you for all you've been to me over the past few "minutes".

Thanks to you:

... I made it into and out of the "belly of the beast", and am once again back home.

Thanks to you:

... I can see the smiles in all your eyes, you who are, each one, right now under very different skies.
... I feel your continued calm concern, the strength of our support, of you for me, of me for you.

Thanks to you:

... The Garden before me is nicer (more lush, more varied, more giving) than it's ever been before.
... The Garden (and my time in it) has made this transition more mindful and serene.
... The Garden already feeds twenty families (at least once a week), and feeds me every day.

Thanks to you:

... Annie (my old dog) rests on our front porch, there throughout to offer a warm and loving head.
... Thunder (my new dog) skips brightly on our wet lawn, still shaking off his five years on a chain.
... A flock of wild geese greet me every morning and, once again, at night, leaving and returning, together in their small, chatty "V", to and from our upper pond.
... A new (and larger) young band of deer (two does and their three young-uns) look at me, intent,
from the eastern pasture, high above the ridge, our glimpses at each other now hidden by the trees.

Thanks to you:

... I now know what he meant by the "fierce urgency of now" (Martin Luther King)
... I now believe "one person can make a difference. Everyone should try." (John F. Kennedy)
... I now humbly acknowledge that "we are the ones we've been waiting for." (Hopi Elders)
... I now smile as I recall that "first they ignored us, then they laughed at us, then they fought us, then we won." (Gandhi)
... WE now can celebrate the passage of the TN Voter Confidence Act (as of this very morning)

So thanks, again and maybe this one last time, to all of you, for all you are.
You've meant the world to me.

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To show my appreciation to any of you who are within driving distance, what follows after this final note is an invitation to a Gratitude picnic I'm having on my farm this Saturday (May 24). Y'all come, and bring friends and family. If you've ever wondered just what this deep woods place is like that has wrapped itself around my heart, here's your chance.

If not, take care. Here's hoping our paths will cross again, soon.

Bernie Ellis
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GRATITUDE PICNIC – BERNIE'S FARM
SATURDAY, MAY 24
1:00 PM ‘TIL DARK:30

BRING: YOURSELF, YOUR FRIENDS AND FAMILY

BRING (IF YOU'D LIKE): LAWN CHAIR, BUG REPELLANT, FISHING POLE, WALKING SHOES, BATHING SUIT, COOLER TO TAKE HOME GARDEN VEGGIES, SOMETHING FOR THE TABLE

DON'T BRING: PETS

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