Have you ever noticed that you learn more from your mistakes than from when you “get it right?”  Why is that?

It seems when we get something right, we take it for granted, ignore, it doesn’t sink in…we simply don’t own it. But, when we have to puzzle over a problem. We take it apart, put it back together…it doesn’t work. We try again…and finally, hooray! It works!! We own it! The process learning involved taking things apart and putting them back together so that our mind understands not that something works but how it works.

Growing Common Ground is a lot like that. Looking back over the past six months, we have had great leadership, great adivors, amazing volunteers, and beautiful refugee trainees who have become friends. AND we have learned a lot. We have learned by trial and error. Sometimes by error and trial. We learned by others sharing the things they’ve learned in the school of hard knocks. And some things have just come together beautifully.

And in the process, we have begun to form a community. A community of people focused on one main goal, providing economic independence for those who have the least among us. And we have seen many folks experience satisfaction in personal goals like green living, and giving back, finding new friendships.

I wonder, if we had been given a mold to pour us into and it had not required that we work through the rough and tumble of a new enterprise…and a new movement…would we have enjoyed the journey so much? Would we have formed friendships born out of the need to figure out how to get water to plants when the spigot didn’t work, or out of the need to revise a curriculum for each and every class, or simply out of leaning on each other ’cause we were just plain tired. If we had been handed Common Ground fully formed…would we have learned? Would we have grown? Would we appreciate each other and the refugees we serve? I wonder.

Personally, I’m glad we’re not done yet. We still have a lot to learn. We still have a lot of growing to do. Sounds like fun to me!