Just looking for answers

Friends,

As a Village, we have gone through some "bumpy times" that have left us asking,"Where are we going?"  "When are we going to get there?"  "What are we going to do?"

These are three true stories that will not answer these questions, but an answer might be hidden in between the lines.

1.  Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra declared, "The future isn't what it used to be."  Although that may be true, it's the only place we have to go.  Your potential lies ahead of you -- whether you're eight, eighteen, forty-eight, or eighty.  You still have room to improve yourself.  As a Spanish proverbs says, "He who does not look ahead remains behind.

2.  Composer-cellist Pablo Casals was in the final years of his life.  When asked, "Mr. Casals, you are 95-years-old and the greatest cellist that ever lived.  Why do you still practice 6-hours a day?"
     Mr. Casals' answer:  "Because I think I'm making progress. That is the only way to continual growth."
     General George Patton told his troops, "There is one thing I want you to remember.  I don't want to get any messages saying we are holding our position.  We are advancing constantly."
     If you think you can "hold your ground" and still make the journey, "you are mistaken."

3.  Horace Walpole said, "In science, mistakes always precede the truth."
     Kellogg's Corn flakes resulted when boiled wheat was left in a baking pan overnight.
     Ivory soap floats because a batch was left in the mixer too long and had a large volume of air whipped into it.
     Scott Towels were launched when a toilet paper machine put too many layers of tissue together.
     As Gail Sheehy asserted:  "If we don't change, we don't grow.  If we don't grow, we are not really living.  Growth demands a temporary surrender of security.  It may mean a giving up of familiar but limiting patterns, safe but unrewarding work, values no longer believed in, relationships that have lost their meaning.  As Dostoevsky put it, "taking a new step, uttering a new word, is what most people fear most."  The real fear should be just the opposite.

So what is the answer to the above questions?  Simply, our journey is evolving and we must grow with it.  As Dr. William Osler  once told a group of medical students in 1892,  "Think not of the amount to be accomplished, the difficulties to be overcome, or the end to be attained, but set earnestly at the little task at your elbow, letting that be sufficient for the day."

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