NEW YEAR GREETINGS

by Joyce Teague, Board President

Happy New Year to everyone! Along with that, add my astonishment

that 2009 came upon us so quickly. I’m sure you feel the same way.

In looking back at 2008, the temple’s brightest highlights include

our celebration of the completed phases of the New Heights Project in

September and the arrival of the Mukojimas’ baby girl in August. We

made substantial improvements to the temple. We made a commitment

to prepare lunches for Kiku Gardens’ senior lunch program and to offer

dinners on four of the BTSD/VFW bingo nights. We revived temple taiko

after years of dormancy. Other highlights will be included in my report at

the General Meeting on January 11.

As a New Year dawns, we always hold hope for a change for the

better in every aspect of our lives. Buddhists accept change as a natural

process but the Dharma doesn’t promise change will be easy. It is

useful to recognize we can be active or passive in the inevitable process

of change. It is up to each of us to determine how involved we will be in

creating our own future.

Stay Informed

I urge as many of you as possible to attend the annual membership

meeting on January 11. If you want to know how your membership

pledges and monthly donations are being used, this is where you will

get an itemized accounting. We’ll also give a brief overview of 2008 and

announce the services and events planned for 2009. Of course, this

information is also available anytime to any temple member, but the

meeting is a potluck luncheon, a very pleasant setting to get your questions

and concerns addressed! Whether you are a trusting soul who

thinks the Board is making all the right decisions, a monku-tare (complainer)

who prefers to shoot from the lip, or somewhere in the middle of

the spectrum, at least be able to say you are informed.

Any member with interest in the temple’s well-being is asked to sit

on the board for a two-year term. Saying you are too busy is not a good

enough excuse—all of us would love to have 25 hours every day! Your

obligation is one evening meeting a month with just about the most

congenial group of people in town. And if you think two years is a long

commitment, believe me, it will pass in the blink of an eye!

We will also be adding new people to our support committees.

These are not board positions but open to any of our Sangha. New

perspectives and fresh ideas are always needed to keep an organization

like ours viable, especially with the country’s economic struggles which

have and will continue to affect all of us. If not able to formally serve,

please pass along your ideas to any board or committee member.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Roger and Will Coppock for cleaning away graffiti they

found on the front door while working at the temple one day last month.

They are among many who “just do” before being asked.

Thank you to all the “enablers” who helped keep your president on

task over the past 11 months. The list is very long but Ralph is at the top

of it. I especially enjoyed working with Sensei during this wonderful

year he and Mika became parents and Bill and I became grandparents.

I am grateful for the wisdom and guidance of all our ministers.

Thank you to Mai, our office volunteers, the Board, and to each person who

stepped forward and took care of the many temple jobs and responsibilities,

large and small, for the benefit of the Sangha this year. Whether you chaired

an event, led a service, brought offerings, attended meetings, replaced a light

bulb, donated goods or services, helped with Dharma School or at one of

our many fundraisers, shared your cooking at a potluck...or any number of

small acts that made a difference… I sincerely thank you for helping keep the

temple a safe, comfortable, lively and special place.

As Sangha members, you have each made a commitment to treat the temple

as your own space, caring for it and supporting it so we will always have a

place to gather to hear and practice the Nembutsu teachings and enjoy one

another’s company.

Regardless of our actual years, let’s continue to learn and grow together in the

New Year, ever children in the Dharma. Gassho.