Reflecting on a Year

Recently I celebrated my first year working at St. Anthony Foundation. Reflecting back on the time passed, this has been one of the most gratifying and most troubling years. Every day I am amazed at the work that is done through our programs. Though I am not on the front lines of direct-service, I still walk through and say hi to the familiar faces in the morning, share smiles with our guests in line for the Dining Room, small talk with clients of our Father Alfred Center. There is the other side of it as well: reading the statistics, hearing about budget cuts, healthcare cuts and senior benefit cuts. It is overwhelming looking at the broad scope of issues our guests and clients face, and wondering where the solution is, how long will it take to get there.

I suppose truly making progress means understanding it is a long-term process, and finding repreive in the daily sucesses. Today a dining room full of guests will have a hot meal today, where there may have been none. Tonight, 51 senior women will sleep safely at our Madonna Residence, and will wake up in the comfort of a community. Today marks another day of sobriety for 60 men in our recovery program, working one step at a time to build healthier lives. It is witnessing these daily sucesses, these tangible and personal sucesses that, keeps everyone focused on the task at hand, to believe in the work that we do, because our guests and clients believe in us as well.