By CYNTHIA WALLENTINE

As is right, we gather  round The Celtic Connection at twilight. An end, a beginning, and ever an in-between.

For more than a quarter of a century I have had the privilege of knowing Maura as a friend and publisher.

I have watched astonished as she, Catholine, and a very talented cadre of people spun gold, silver, and green to create a community newspaper with American and European circulation.

Through personal and professional travail, financial hardship, and intense work, Maura crafted a paper that became a community touchstone, offering support, news, congratulations, and condolences.  The stuff of Life.

For my part, I was blessed to have space to put down words with which to regard, touch, and hopefully reveal mysteries.

My mandate was always to hang it up when I could no longer take it deeper. I calculated that if I could do my own work, over time, there would always be a new way to see things.  I hope I did not disappoint.

I had the sincere privilege to attend the Lá Fhéile Bríde Festival in February of this year the first time I had returned to Vancouver in 20 years, where I used to live.

It was the last event before a virus shuttered the world.  I was grateful to be there, and to have the chance to meet kindred souls, some who knew my column.

Thank you to Maura for giving me that space for all those years, and to those who may have tumbled over its words now and again.

Yet it is twilight, and The Celtic Connection is moving into the gloaming, energetically returning to ground, to tree, to sky.  And let us remember, the Celtic day begins at twilight, so day end is always just the next beginning.  Blessed Be.

Cynthia blogs about life and times at https://dustycrossroads.com.