I have seen a lot of physical growth over the past few years at Villa. We have built out three communities in that short time and are on our way to selling out two more and starting yet another. I’m excited about that, but I’m equally as excited about another kind of growth – a growth that takes place within the individual. I have seen a lot of that as well, in residents and Villa staff, and in me. As I look out my window at the burst of spring that has overwhelmed the Hampton Roads area with its beauty, I am particularly struck with a sense of renewal and rejuvenation, both of which are self perpetuating and practical forces for good within us if we let them be. These are the first signs that we are growing.

It is easy to get bogged down by life’s duties or stagnant when we are in between passions. A lesson I am learning is that by adjusting a focus from inward to outward, from getting to giving, and expanding my embrace of a greater world than my office and home, I can get back into growth mode should I find myself in a winter-like standstill.

Unlike my observation of the beautiful azalea buds outside my window that are waiting to burst, I have come to find that growth doesn’t happen if I passively wait and watch. I grow when I learn and try new things and push through layers of doubt, years of opinions, temptations and fears. On the other hand, like the azalea buds, growth is always from the inside out. I think I’ve always known that, but this year of turning points and new benchmarks makes that lesson more meaningful to me.