25 Comments
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Deborah McKinley's avatar

Beautiful MaryAnn. Simply beautiful. Your kid is lucky to have you as her mom. May your kid continue to bloom, experiment, and be courageous. And carry all the love from you and others that gets poured into life.

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Carol Hodes's avatar

Are these not the wishes and words that can easily apply to our children and grandchildren?

We all ponder whether or not we have done all we could to create a happy, healthy, responsible human.

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

For sure Carol!

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adrian's avatar

i am so lucky to call mel my closest friend

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Glad y’all have each other

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JAMES TYRONE's avatar

Very touching

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thank you Jim!

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Mary Austin (she/her)'s avatar

Woot! Yay for your delightful kid. Congrats all around.

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thanks Mary!

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Holly Johnson's avatar

This tugged at so many parts of me. I am in awe of you both. Happy graduation!

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thank you Holly!

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Capitol Jill's avatar

I love this quote: Look for the Helpers. You will always find people who are helping. -Fred Rogers … and I love all that you wrote here, MaryAnn. As far as Mel is concerned, am I worried about this new time in their life? What? Me worry about Mel? They know what to do. ❤️✌️

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Yep!

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Hans Jorgensen's avatar

Beautiful throughout, and this line stopped me for a breath - I wish I’d done more to prepare the world for you. Best wishes to you all, and congratulations!

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thank you Hans!

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Edward Goode's avatar

💜

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

👍🏻

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Keith's avatar

I'd send her (and all your other children) some $$ in honor and in memory of their fantastic great-grandmother Caroline. I notice that it didn't take long for her to read your letter and get to the "tell people to send me money" reply.

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Gen Z’s got hustle 🤣

And yes, we’ll be remembering a birthday tomorrow, but it will be hers.

The current forecast in DC is for literal rain on someone’s parade.

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Rosa Lindahl's avatar

MaryAnn, I still remember the workshop at College of Preachers in DC w Lauren Winner and the delicious baby girl M who graced a bit of our time. She brought sheer delight. Her prom dress in the picture above brought delight and wonder. What a brave and luminous and beautiful young person. M was very kind in allowing others to get that glimpse. My best to her and her mama!

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thank you Rosa!

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Nancy Burkley's avatar

Beautiful!

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Thank you!

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MaryAnn McKibben Dana's avatar

Let me also make something clear, since it's come up today in email.

I have a number of principled concerns about this administration, which is doing real and tangible harm to people I care about, both people I know intimately well and those further out in my circle of concern. I am watching it happen firsthand.

I know not everyone agrees with me. I am interested, even eager, to engage in conversation about that. To understand and be understood.

By contrast, emailing me to accuse me of "Trump Derangement Syndrome" is lazy and cheap. It also illustrates the point I was trying to make in this post about the world we now live in.

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Susan S Smith's avatar

Congratulations to your graduate. All of the seminary kids have tons of aunts and uncles(even the ones born after we graduated and went our different ways).

This is a beautiful post.

Thank you 😊

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