Looks like we are wrapping another year of service to our community. It's hard work a lot of the times but it is also so very satisfying when we can find someone a home, give them support, help them find food for their family or provide someone with assistance that avoids eviction.

We wish so many people didn't have to live in poverty and deal with so many issues like HIV/AIDS. Yet, we accept that in this life there are challenges for many people and we are humbled and grateful to be here for as many people as we can.

The offices here are going to be closed from Friday through and including Monday so our staff and volunteers can take some time to rest, refresh and spend time with their families.

We hope you find some comfort and joy in this special season. Till the new year.

Tom

This isn't the first time we have experienced 11.11.11. The last time was November 11, 1911. I wasn't around for that and I won't be around for 11.11.3011 either. So, today is like no other I will experience. Numbers fascinate us, we call some number lucky, they are key to science, technology and life itself. We are, after all, in a digital age of ones and zeros. That is the basic way in which the world communicates. Yet, for the life of most everyone of us, we cannot write in this language, it has to be re-interpreted, turning numbers into letters, symbols, characters and other manifestations of energy. It's everywhere.

I believe that each day creates new possibilities for us to live in a different way or see life with a different perspective. Regardless of the economic turmoil happening in the world at this moment, I believe it is part of our evolution to create something even better than we have now.

Progress is often painful, yet change is inevitable. As the world changes, we need not resist because the change will come. Change in our climate, our economy, the number of people that inhabit the world. That just changed to 7 billion recently. One life changed everything. I think that is the lesson we learn today. The importance of 1. 

We have a strong belief, instinctual almost, that 1 person can make a difference in this life. 1 idea can have amazing consequences (think Steve Jobs or the founders of McDonald's). We strive, as Americans, to be number 1. It is what makes us the greatest nation on earth. Yet, being number 1 must also serve to humble ourselves because, as they sing in the song, 1 is the loneliest number. Being 1 can isolate, it can divide, it can make us compete because we believe that there can be only 1.

I believe that too, in a different way than most. For me, we are all here together, created by the same force that over history has had many names and manifestations. There is nothing natural in this world that was created by humans. It had to be something much greater. It has to be the one. And since the one creates all, then we are all 1...parts of the whole. United we are complete. We are one. Other than being one we then divide and that, quite frankly, has not worked well for us.

Whatever your feelings on oneness are, I can say today I am glad to be one with my colleagues at Townspeople and all the people we serve. We launched this new website today. So for a few days our sites will be 2. But soon after we will once again become one...having a built a new online community experience, a place of knowledge and a place where you just have this feeling that you will be home soon.