We should so live and labor in our time that what came to us as seed may go to the next generation as blossom, and what came as blossom may go then as fruit. - -Henry Ward Beecher

As I sit and type this last editorial, I am reminded of this saying by Beecher. Reflecting on the seeds planted, I journey back to my first introduction to the Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing (JCN). It came as a call from Barbara Riegel, who invited me to serve as a department editor for the Nursing Grand Rounds section of JCN. I accepted the invitation without hesitation. From the inception of JCN we began to:

1. Recruit an outstanding editorial board.

2. Solicit state-of-the-art manuscripts for JCN.

3. Build a sustainable subscriber base.

4. Forge a collaborative working relationship with Aspen's editorial team.

Each of these endeavors was a seed planted.

The blossoms came when Barbara once again called and this time invited me to serve as her co-editor of JCN in 1988. Again I accepted the invitation without hesitation. With time, the seeds that were planted all grew and we saw the blossoms appear. Our editorial board was world renowned. We were receiving state-of-the-art manuscripts. Our subscriber base grew and we had a wonderful collaborative working relationship with Aspen. Another seed that both Barbara and I wanted to plant was to attain the status of being one of the few nursing periodicals to be indexed in Index Medicus. This seedling emerged in 1994.

Now for the fruits. As the co-editor of JCN for close to a decade. I have had the honor and privilege of working with Barbara Riegel [horizontal ellipsis] a tireless, devoted, and caring professional. One of the fruits that grew from this professional relationship with Barbara is an enduring lifelong friend and mentor. I have harvested many fruits of learning from my editorial work and from working with such an esteemed editorial board. My sincerest thanks to all of you and to the many manuscript reviewers of JCN.

I am a firm believer in synchronicity. My resignation as one of the co-editors of JCN will afford me the time to complete my doctoral studies in Human and Organizational Systems from the Fielding Institute in Santa Barbara, California. For the past several years I have studied and written about chaos and complexity theory, creating meaningful work in organizations, future search conferencing as a tool that allows diverse stakeholders to envision their future and actualize this vision, emotional intelligence, and the type of leaders we need now for the 21st century. These leaders are transformational and collaborative. It is an intended coincidence that my last issue is on transformational leaders in cardiovascular nursing.

Many of these leaders whose stories will be told have been my mentors and friends. I am truly in awe of the narratives in this final issue because they exemplify nurses who have been successful at fostering collaboration without managing others. In them we have an extraordinary compilation of servant leaders who have been mentored and then in turn have mentored many of us. A special "thank you" to them for contributing to JCN. What is even more significant is that one of my closest friends, Patricia Hooper-Kyriakidis, is the guest editor for this issue. Thank you, Pat, for your vision and dedicated energies to make this an exceptional issue.

JCN will continue to have an abundant barvest. This is because Debra Moser, DNSc, will be the new co-editor replacing me. She brings a wealth of knowledge and talent to bear. She and Barbara are already planting new seeds to expand our editorial board to include interdisciplinary colleagues. I will remain close to my JCN community and continue to serve on this editorial board.

In closing, some say that success is getting what you want and that happiness is wanting what you get. Becoming the co-editor of JCN eight years ago has been my success and serving as editor for these years has been my happiness.

Thank you.

- Joan Vitello-Cicciu, MSN, RN, CCRN, CS, FAAN

Clinical Nurse Specialist; Boston Medical Center Hospital; Boston, Massachusetts