Beginnings and Endings

Well, here we are at the crossroads. With this article, Into the Centre shifts to an occasional publication.

I'm not going to overdo this article. At one point, I thought it might be nice to review some of my past articles or to try to summarize the content. In the end, as I sit at my Port Elgin computer and type, I notice I'm not motivated to do either.

I do want to say a few thank you's.

My friend Debashis Dutta contributed some excellent parenting articles, and he and his beloved Adrienne are two people Dar and I really care about. Thanks for your wisdom and insight, as well as your friendship.

David Sheedy was just getting started writing for us, and, I think, was getting a sense of the gap between promising an article and delivering one. J David has a gift for saying briefly and well what I twaddle on about for pages, and that's a skill worth building on. I really liked the articles he submitted.

Dar had a couple of periods of really getting excited about writing for Into the Centre, most notably after she finished Phase 1 at Haven, and many of you enjoyed her "stuff" too. She has a clear and elegant way of seeing and knowing, cutting through the "complications of thought" I am known for. She is every bit my equal partner in all that goes on around here and with Into the Centre, my best friend, my love and lover, and both the only woman I would ever want to spend 24/7 with, and the only woman who seems to be able to stand that much of me.

A special word of thanks to Peter Hoban, who has been reading Into the Centre forever, and commenting elegantly and directly whenever our perspectives have been at cross-purposes. He has done so with grace and humour, and has also shared his journey with me. And, he's been a great financial contributor as well, something I want to acknowledge with great gratitude, and publicly.

Others of you have written and posed questions or made comments, and many of you, as I said last week, have commented on the importance you have placed on Into the Centre. I thank you for your openness and vulnerability. I cherish having met you through this medium.

I don't have much more to say. I encourage you to look to your self and to take responsibility for your life. It is so easy to blame others when the going gets rough, and yet, all we can do is stay focussed on our walk and our goals and make the changes that we can make.

We will be in touch as time goes by, assuming you have subscribed to our contact list.

It has been a privilege to enter your homes and/or places of business for the last 4.5 years. From humble beginnings in April of 99, when 20 or so received the first issue, to a maximum of nearly 1500, through the attrition of the last year or so, and to a fairly consistent "send" to 700, we have talked about life, about relationships, romance and sex, about communication and about self-responsibility, always, I trust, in a supportive and yet goading way.

I wish you all well on your journey.

It's been a trip.

In warmth, with love and gratitude,

Wayne

This continues to be my favourite "Wayne and Dar" picture.
Taken in 2001, at Haven, at the end of Dar's Phase 1.
My hair's shorter now, and we're both smaller (thank god for Atkins) and continue to be "truly, madly, deeply..."