: ten years is a long time :

... there are very some reflective folks left behind on VanIsland this morning, as JimmyK and Hil wind their way across #10 Highway on BC's Lower Mainland in search of Trans-Canada Highway #1 ... which will take them, eventually, back to Ontario.

This is my favourite pic of James. Maybe taken at Mike & 'Nette's wedding, but I can't be sure. I've saved it under the title: 'JwdK ... Man in Black'.

James headed out here for university a decade ago, hard to believe, I know. Once he stumbled upon 'thePlace' Community, he never looked back. Initially, an HRDC funded summer job here and there, occasionally an anarchist phase, a great housemate for Garner & Giselle, and others ( almost forgot about his couch-crashing phase ), James stepped it up several notches Summer 2004 when Randy was on sabbatical, and ended up interning at Lambrick Park Church, thePlace specifically, but his influence, as a community environmentalist, knew no bounds. Websites. Poasis. StickMan art shows. The Cafe. Camping. Poker. Art. Posters. YLOP. PodCasts. Networking. Digging up crazy ideas and articles. Sharing them. A loss ...

There are touches and traces of the JwdK everywhere, if you are smart enough, or care enough, to look ... those who worked with him already miss him, the only good thing about his internship wrapping up almost exactly this time last year was it gave us time to adjust, knowing that family, and roots, were calling. Not that we adjusted well, mind you, but we tried.

He met Hilary Cain out here, fell in love with, and married her. Their Victoria wedding reception was an all time fav of mine ... seeing as the who's who of thePlace showed up decked out for a night at the Empress, a dress code upgrade never to be replicated, I don't think. Then there's Matty's best man's speech paralleling James & Hil's relationship to U2's Achtung Baby. Gold, pure Gold.

James, or Jamie, to us refugees from London, ON was one of those guys who got stuff done with little or no muss and fuss. He rounded out the Randy & Simon tag team into a strategic troika of complementary gifts, and when his internship ended, his name plate on the Place office suite door was changed to ... "In Memory of James Kingsley". His version of "minutes" for Place vision team meetings were a joy to read, capturing the essentials, with a tinge of subtle humour, and often an editorial comment tossed in that brought clarity to the reader. I will never forget the 3 submissions JK wrote this time last year as LPC turned the corner into nominating elders from thePlace. I read, and re-read them ... soaking up his ability to phrase things so accurately, without fanfare, or BS. Sans James, thePlace leadership limped a little, for a while, and I guess always will?

I can count on one hand the number of people I have worked closely with for almost a decade, and it was a privilege to do that with James William David Kingsley for 9 years. Maybe the UHaul will resist climbing the Rockies, and they will just turn it around and return?

Retrospectively ...

dlc

ps. the Bing weighs in here.