A Real Account
'Though I do not believe that a plant will spring up where no seed has been, I have great faith in a seed. Convince me that you have a seed there, and I am prepared to expect wonders.' Henry David Thoreau
I see thoughts and words like the wind, they can be everywhere and seem powerless. How do you bring these other external and internal forces to bear upon the wind, to harness the wind to strong constructive uses? You cannot hold the wind in your hand, it is elusive, but yet great external forces can turn the wind into a tornado. How do you tap into to these external forces to shape your message, your words, your purposes? Can you tap into these forces? How do you bring forth ideas and thoughts that shake the heavens and shake the earth? That shake governmental powers and plow the fields to cultivate your community to greater productivity? How do your words go from being a voice on a street corner to impacting society? From 'Trajectory'
I admit, it is very easy to get involved in rhetoric, and speak lofty words, and basically blow smoke in your ear! So, hopefully, after the article on Trajectory, I have raised eyebrows and tapped into the cynic that is in all of us. "Convince me that you have a seed there!" I intend to do just that. And when I am done, I am prepared to expect wonders... in you! Because the alternative is not an acceptable solution for rural healthcare and your communities.
As I said, being in the profession that I am in, I work with visions, I work with ideas, I work with spoken words. And not everything I hear, not every project I touch has the type of power I am speaking of in these articles. But I have seen words spoken in a casual setting, that come alive. I have watched them move through the minds of men and women and gather strength and change the allocation of resources and come to fruition.
The specific case I will address is a rural hospital that had died, the business completely folded up because of a lack of money. How long it had been like that I am not sure. It was a Hill-Burton facility with classic antique surgery lights and sterilizers. The facility sat on a hill across from a school, vacant for years. One day the owner of a business had the burning desire in his heart that this community needed the hospital back. It was a crude form of the Community Benefit Assessment that is required today. But he saw something. The motive wasn't as opportunity to make money, he saw a need, a necessity in the community. And he started to take steps.
He met with the Governor of the State, and stated his case. There was a favorable response, but I am not aware if there were funds provided, probably some. He came back and found a man that had been an administrator previously and slowly they started putting the pieces together. About three years before I met them, the hospital opened and started seeing patients. Staff came in and enough money to barely keep it afloat. One day their accountant was talking to a CEO of a hospital I was doing planning on for a replacement hospital. The accountant was encouraged by what he saw and went and told the new group. They sent a party down to observe a design session, and that flame started to burn stronger. "We can do this!"
It took several more years to get HUD financing in place. In the meantime, someone donated a great parcel of land at the bottom of some foothills to the fledging hospital, with a timeline on when they needed to get something started. The funding was approved, the bids went out and came back favorably and construction started. There was about a mile of public utilities that needed to be installed, that was outside of the budget. A group of men arose from the city, they had no money to make a donation to the hospital, but they had trucks and backhoes and strong men to do the work. They said if the City provided the materials, they would install it at no charge. It happened. A physician relocated from a large city in the southwest and moved into the community bringing new healthcare ideas and strength to the group. HUD approved additional money during construction to go from 15 beds to 25 beds to help secure their future. And the hospital opened on the edge of town, nestled in the arms of the foothills at the intersection of two highways, and said to the community, "Come, this is the place for new business to grow and expand. Hotels, restaurants and shops come! Schools and families with children, come!!"
What was happening here? The north wind had come south and was blowing favorably upon this garden! Was it the business owner that talked to the governor? Was it just random acts of serendipity? Or was there an idea that came forth and lodged in the heart of a man that cared for his community? As he talked about the hope he had, the winds kindled that spark into a fire. It moved through the design community, the governmental powers and the recession to be built. Did the administrator see every detail and know how to deal with them? No. Did the Board have a crystal ball of the future to make perfect decisions? No. Was the time right? That depends on whose eyes are looking at the landscape and what they see.
They had an idea. That idea was a seed. And when it germinated in the hearts of men, it brought forth wonders! This isn't the only time I have seen a vision come into a community. But a vision is a living thing, and it has power to move like the wind, to reach across the country and gather resources and cause them to come and flow together to raise up a community. Once you have touched and worked with vision, you can no longer just go back and do work because you have tapped into a purpose that is generational, but it is walked out one day at a time.
Trajectory. It is not just your points that are being mapped out. Sometimes it is the wind in your sails!