A Page from The Past

Yesterday I attacked the growing pile of papers on my desk and a second pile that I'd stashed away a couple of months ago while getting the place ready to host a party. I sorted everything into piles on the living room floor, so I can file it appropriately. One of those piles went into the recycling bag. Whenever I go through this process I'm always surprised at how much I don't really need to keep. And sometimes I find a surprise.

Yesterday's surprise? A sheet of notebook paper torn from one of my spiral notebooks dated October 25, 2011. The heading on the first side read "SFMM Budget" and on the second "SFMM Questions". Saint Francis something Ministries. I think the second M might have been Mutual. There in front of me sat the initial framework for one of the ideas we tried to get off the ground at Grace Episcopal Church Norwalk. Several times over the past six years we tried to find creative ways to make use of our property and building. Saint Francis Ministries became just one more project that never got off the ground a variety of reasons.

Unbegun, unfinished, and failed projects litter my past. I used to look back over them and start to feel like I was a failure. But that's not really the truth of it. Failing something doesn't make a person a failure. Our culture tends to forget that. The question to ask is what did you learn from the experience? Very little scientific or technical progress happens on the first try. In fact, sometimes great discoveries happen by mistake.

Why are we so caught up in the need to not make mistakes? Why is failure something to fear?

Saint Francis Ministries may have died on the drawing board, but who knows when some of those ideas might become an important part of another project.