Thursdays are fundraising meeting days. I do tend to look on these days with less excitement than my other days at CASA. Meetings are a challenge and I know I've written about these challenges in the past. Lots of opinions and ideas and more opinions. Still, when I looked around the table during our meeting today, I had a strong appreciation for the inter-dependance of things. I was grateful that we were all gathered in Gerardo's beautiful Cafe Muro, sipping mineral water and coffee, determining what our next moves were going to be. There have been disappointments and upsets in this group. For obvious reasons, I can't go into detail about any of it, and more importantly, what matters is that we've managed to keep it together! I have a feeling it often takes groups like this a bit of time to move around and settle and stretch and settle and walk away and come back and settle, until you have people that are working "synergistically" and constructively with one another. I also truly believe that people want to be a part of something they believe in or have a strong connection with. It's just possible that support may come in many different forms. I was recently cataloging some of the press releases CASA has received over the years, and realized how long it has taken this non-profit to succeed. Well, thirty years to be exact. There have also been a lot of huge set-backs and disappointments along the way. They stuck with it. At times, I believe that perseverance is as important as passion. Passion can waiver in the face of adversity. Perseverance takes the hand of passion when it cannot move along on its own. Damn, I have learned a lot about working with people.