Being Our Best- March 30, 2021

"True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values." - Muhammad Ali

Alexander Jewish Family Service Friends –

This week’s quote comes from Douglas Malloch.

Douglas Malloch (1877– 1938) was an American poet, short-story writer and Associate Editor of American Lumberman, a trade paper in Chicago. He became known as a "Lumberman's poet" both locally and nationally. He is noted for writing Round River Drive and "Be the Best of Whatever You Are" in addition to many other creations. He was commissioned to write the Michigan State Song.

Be the Best of Whatever You Are

~by Douglas Malloch

If you can't be a pine on the top of the hill
Be a scrub in the valley--but be
The best little scrub by the side of the rill;
Be a bush if you can't be a tree.

If you can't be a bush be a bit of the grass,
And some highway some happier make;
If you can't be a muskie then just be a bass--
But the liveliest bass in the lake!

We can't all be captains, we've got to be crew,
There's something for all of us here.
There's big work to do and there's lesser to do,
And the task we must do is the near.

If you can't be a highway then just be a trail,
If you can't be the sun be a star;
It isn't by size that you win or you fail--
Be the best of whatever you are!

We all have a choice – we can go through life lamenting all of the things that we are not able to do or celebrating the things that we are. I will never dance for the Bolshoi ballet or play for the Rockets or lead a manned mission to the moon but, as part of Alexander JFS, I will: help a community recover after a storm, help a senior a geat home safely, help a Holocaust survivor live with dignity, help a community prevent a death by suicide or overdose, help individuals and families heal from mental health challenges, help someone find employment, empower someone with a disability to live and work more independently and help individuals and families rebuild from financial hardship and that – all of that - sounds pretty amazing!

Each of us, by being the best of who we are and at what we do, are part of a pretty amazing team that accomplishes great things every day.

Thanks for being your best at doing what you do – for doing what you can with what you have - right here where you are.

Thanks for listening,

Carl

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