Farewell to 2834 – “Thank you, from all of us.”

At the send off event for 2834 S. Normal on April 24, 2021, we were honored to have Mindy Rueden speak, the former Executive Director of the Darst Center and the heart of this space for over a decade. Read her message below and add your own memories of the Darst Center to our online booklet here (instructions on how to add a post are at the bottom of the Padlet page).

The mission of the Darst Center is one of great importance and one that will continue to create space for dialogue and discovery, no matter where it calls home. We gather today to celebrate the ongoing mission. We also gather today to celebrate our farewell to the place in which this mission has lived since its founding.

This place...this space... has a brilliant, vibrant spirit; a spirit that has been nourished and fostered and given life by the presence of the thousands of people it has so graciously welcomed. It has been maintained and cared for and boasts modest accommodations -- some of the same furniture still providing a place for rest or gathering that did so before this mission even began here! It is that comfortable simplicity, that purpose lived without airs, that for the past nearly 20 years, has greeted and welcomed people from all over the country. From Cape Elizabeth, Maine to Pittsburg, California. From Bemidji, Minnesota to Austin, Texas and countless places in between.  It has hosted 8th graders from Catherine Cook here in city who skipped up the stairs and climbed on the beds. It has hosted elders from Fort Collins, Colorado who paused on the landings and were grateful for bottom bunks. It is this sacred place...a space without ego...that welcomed and gifted all who came with the permission to arrive as they were.  It is this initial gift of generous welcome that has invited the countless gifts given back.

Each individual and group that visits the Center is invited to share part of themselves, part of their story. In the beginning, guest books captured these reflections and stories. And now, in the Chapel, lives a basket of papers, on which people have taken note and contributed in word to the spirit of this space. Please know that as you gather today, you are invited to share in the same way in the reflection book, contributing in word to the spirit of this place, this mission.

As we celebrate our farewell, I’d like to reflect on the many ways this place, this space has been gifted:

• It has been given and holds the spirit of authenticity, people risking image or reputation to be seen as they are.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of curiosity, people journeying to uncover the unfamiliar and unknown.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of healing, people honoring the hurt and struggle within and around them.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of cooperation, people living and learning and working together for each other.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of purpose, where just because you've outlived one purpose doesn't mean you don't have another, or maybe even one more still.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of compassion, people recognizing the humanness in the faces of others.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of joy, people sharing music and dancing and laughter that fills the space.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of love, people sharing and growing in relationship and care.
• It has been given and holds the spirit of all of life.

It is this spirit of life that we invite you to take with you when you depart today.  And I invite you to capture it in a couple of different ways.

First, if you're comfortable, able, and interested, please spend a quiet minute in the Center. Notice your feet firmly grounded in the space. Place your hand on a wall or on a table or on a door frame--they have all served us so well.  Look around and notice...and take the biggest, deepest breath you've ever taken in your life!  Breathe it in! And as you fill your lungs with the spirit of this space, letting it settle within you, I invite you to pray a "thank you, from all of us."

Second, if you're comfortable, able, and interested, for a more tangible take-away, I invite you to visit the garden spaces and to take a cutting or to dig up a bulb. There is much that this space has nourished into bloom, literally and figuratively.  Please feel free to take the brilliant and
beautiful life of this space into your own, and as you do, I invite you again to pray a "thank you, from all of us."

This place's unique and generous spirit of welcome and wonder has been a true gift. And together we pray: "Thank you, from all of us."