My dear Flabbits, Featherheads, and Fendril-riders, I have been so glad and so honored to be your librarian. Over the last five years it has been a delight to watch you develop friendships, create worlds together, and discuss everything under the sun, from Wingfeather and other books, to dead languages and silly games, to good and difficult experiences in our own lives. It’s been good to get to know you, not just as readers but as people. I have made some very dear, lifelong friends here myself, and I’m so glad to know, even as this phase comes to a close, that so many of you wonderful forum-dwellers have also found ways to stay connected.
As Andrew said last week, things change, in the internet and in our own lives, and we aren’t currently able to maintain a full community here at the site. But the site will continue, even though the forums must close. All the content we’ve built over the years will remain up until the new site launches later this summer, and we’ve got LOTS of ideas spinning for how to make it awesome. Whatever it ends up looking like, I’m excited to share it with you.
I would leave you with two blessings today. One, which I shared in the forum last week, and one which was shared in return.
One of my favorite poets, T.S. Eliot, says in his Four Quartets, “Not fare well, but fare forward, voyagers.” 🙂 We are all leaving this forum different than when we arrove. We are losing the forum itself, but we can’t lose what we gained here. We can go forward and bring it forward with us. (It is okay to be sad, though. I feel both sad and excited myself.)
And in the words of one Mischievous Thwapling:
May the Maker watch over you, wherever your footsteps fall. Whether you stumble in the darkest valleys, or stand atop the highest mountain, remember, He loves you.
With the fondest fare forwards,
Song Maiden Thwapling.
Now we are off on another adventure, flung wide into the world. 🙂 Dear friends: Can I help you?
—Madame Sidler
Wish I could have seen the forums earlier, they sounded lovely! Really excited for the new site, Madame Sidler is doing an amazing job!
Christ-lover, eater of chocolate, avid Featherhead and Tolkienist, thwapwhacker, bibliophile, dog-lover,
-Throne Warden Olivia
Because I didn’t get to say goodbye on the forum, I’ll just say it here. I haven’t been very active on the forum, but I enjoyed it, especially the Green Ember thread a year ago. There probably won’t be a lot of you who recognize me, but to those who do, goodbye!
“To these memories I will hold, with your blessing I will go
To turn at last to paths that lead home
And though where the road then takes me, I cannot tell
We came all this way but now comes the day
To bid you farewell
I bid you all a very fond farewell”
– The Last Goodbye
Or should that be, a very fond fare forward?
My place beside you,
Eliza
Beautiful, Eliza.
My blood for yours…
*Plubius
(BTW, did you know that there’s a guy in the Bible named Plubius? And an actor (Jed Clampton in the Beverly Hillbillies) named Buddy Ebsen?)
*sniff sniff* But I didn’t see that post of yours, Twapling! That’s really beautiful and true.
In the words of Triliban Publius, “Whether crushed or sheltered by the Maker’s hand, ’tis beneath it we go, from breath to death.” Farewell!
Heir to the Throne, aspiring author, avid licorice eater, extreme book lover, fish keeper, fendril-rider, God’s child,
Kinnan Wingfeather
Kinnan, I love your signatures!
They weren’t my idea. A few of my friend (Winigiby Iggiby & Kylie Wingfeather, to name a few) were doing it, and I thought it was cool. 🙂 Thx, though! 😀
Oh yes! You’re right, I have been seeing all of you do so. Such fun. 🙂