The pot of gold at the end of the rain(bow)...

What's an Earth Day weekend without a little rain? As Suanne -- a dear friend and the person who made our Musicians for Clean Air concerts possible this weekend -- said: "We need rain to live." And she's so right. Without it...well, this weekend without it we'd have had two spectacular weather days at the Hudson Valley 40th Anniversary Earth Day Celebration instead of one.

Instead, today was the antithesis of yesterday: raw, windy, cold (like 40 degrees cold), and wet...sodden.

And yet, people did come to enjoy the day, indoors. Not nearly as many as yesterday. But still, they were enough. And our farmers, our chefs, our yoga and Tai Chi instructors, our green companies, our kids activities people, our speakers, the Cornell Cooperative Extension's entire staff, our grounds people, office people, our performers -- that is, EVERYONE who played a part in making this Celebration a whole -- smiled at each other, shrugged their shoulders at Mother Nature's weepy sky, and made it a day worth remembering for the visitors who came their way.

And that, my friends, is success. The kind of success that you can't put a number on, but rather, the type of success that you can count on when people act as a community for the good of all involved.

I send my thanks and gratitude to every one of them...every person who was involved...from the Fairgrounds staff who gave up their weekend to work with good cheer and vigor at this new, untried event, to the incredible volunteers who supported not just the event but also me personally, to our green companies' people who stayed with it to the end with good cheer, to our musicians who made such beautiful music whether they played to a "crowd" of a few or to hundreds, to our other performers who entertained our children visitors with real flair and professionalism, to our eco-presenters who made knowledge so easily accessible to all who wanted to learn, to our chefs who made unbelievably delicious food in the Harvest demonstration Kitchen, to our farmers who brought such bounty and good cheer to our event, to the Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County's staff -- virtually all of whom were with us this weekend running the demo kitchen, maker square, presentation area and so much more with such passion, commitment and professionalism (with a special shout out of thanks to all the 4-H clubs and Green Teens who showed their best to over 3000 people), to our Tai Chi/Qigong and Yoga teachers who stretched our muscles and calmed our minds, and to Robert Stone, who so generously gave of his time and his wonderful documentary feature film, "Earth Days."

Thank you. All.

This event would not have been the success that it was without every single one of you!

Tomorrow is for planning anew.

But tonight? You'll pardon me if I sign off to eat a good dinner, take a long hot shower and go to sleep.