your heart and your head shouldn't be so far apart.

I've had two nights of strategic planning meetings for the community of Windom this week.  I couldn't be more excited that Windom is taking action to start moving forward.  One of the nights this week was with the city council and one night was with MIRC (MN Intelligient Rural Communities).  Two seperate nights, two seperate ideas, but both ideas must fit and work together. 

While my excitement for the planning stages is geniune. I'll have to admit, I'm nervous the goals to enhanceWindom's quality of life will be too big, excitement will dwindle, become too overwhelming and too costly for action to take place.  We can't let that happen!  While it is always good to dream big, we have to remember that small pieces to a puzzle, when put together correctly, create a bigger and lovely picture. 

And community development efforts should never cease.  Our job is never done.  We should never dust our hands and say, "this is good enough, we are done now." It must keep evolving and progressing.

So, as Finding Windom helps the the city council start collecting ideas to create concrete goals for Windom's future, we must all keep in mind, small is big and big is doable with small steps.  We will have to prioritize, while thinking about the past, present and future.  It won't be easy, but that is what makes it worth it.  Windom is worth it-our home and community is worth it.

How is it said? And I can't remember who said it, but it is something like this: it is a wise man who plants a tree whose shade he knows he will never sit under. 

Okay, end of pep talk. 

Wait, one more thing: I'm really looking forward to getting my hands dirty to bring these "strategic plans" into the most important part of it all--ACTION.  Actually, I liked what Karl (MIRC man- for lack of a better definition) said at the MIRC meeting, "Everybody would talk about fishing, but nobody would take you fishing."  I think it's a good time to start fishing people.

Speaking of fishing (okay this really doesn't have anything to do with fishing, it was just a good transition), we are looking for plants, benches, large pots, potting soil and rock to landscape a "pocket park" in the empty, sad lot between the Connection and Lily's Nails on the west side of our downtown Square.  Darcy Dahna's high school landscaping class is helping to landscape the lot or soon to be pocket park with donated materials on Community Pride Day on Monday, May 23rd.  How great would it be to have a spot to sit, relax, and enjoy beautiful downtown Windom?  Any donations of materials would be greatly appreciated!

Okay, now its the end of my pep talk.