Standing in front of this group of elite managers, who were willing to write down every word that would come out of the famous professor’s mouth, the professor slowly met eyes with each manager, one by one, and finally said, “we are going to conduct an experiment”.From under the table that stood between the professor and the listeners, the professor pulled out a big glass jar and gently placed it in front of him. Next, he pulled out from under the table a bag of stones, each the size of a tennis ball, and placed the stones one by one in the jar. He did so until there was no room to add another stone in the jar. Lifting his gaze to the managers, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?” The managers replied, “Yes”.

The professor paused for a moment, and replied, “Really?”

Once again, he reached under the table and pulled out a bag full of pebbles. Carefully, the professor poured the pebbles in and slightly rattled the jar, allowing the pebbles to slip through the larger stones, until they settled at the bottom. Again, the professor lifted his gaze to his audience and asked, “Is the jar full?”

At this point, the managers began to understand his intentions. One replied, “apparently not!”

“Correct”, replied the old professor, now pulling out a bag of sand from under the table. Cautiously, the professor poured the sand into the jar. The sand filled up the spaces between the stones and the pebbles.

Yet again, the professor asked, “Is the jar full?”
Without hesitation, the entire group of students replied in unison, “NO!”
“Correct”, replied the professor. And as was expected by the students, the professor reached for the pitcher of water that was on the table, and poured water in the jar until it was absolutely full. The professor now lifted his gaze once again and asked, “What great truth can we surmise from this experiment?”

With his thoughts on the lecture topic, one manager quickly replied, “We learn that as full as our schedules may appear, if we only increase our effort, it is always possible to add more meetings and tasks.”

“No”, replied the professor. The great truth that we can conclude from this experiment is:

If you don’t put the big rocks in first, you’ll never get them in at all.

The auditorium fell silent, as every manager processed the significance of the professor’s words in their entirety.

The old professor continued, “What are the large stones in your life? Health? Family? Friends? Your goals? Doing what you love? Fighting for a Cause? Taking time for yourself?”

What we must remember is that it is most important to include the lager stones in our lives, because if we don’t do so, we are likely to miss out on life altogether. If we give priority to the smaller things in life (pebbles & sand), our lives will be filled up with less important things, leaving little or no time for the things in our lives that are most important to us. Because of this, never forget to ask yourself,

With a warm wave of his hand, the professor bid farewell to the managers, and slowly walked out of the room.

Here are a couple of pictures of Kate and the belly.

Our 3 1/2 years in Switzerland were a great experience, and while we decided we could not end up calling Switzerland home, there are definitely a few things we will miss. The feeling of safety and security, the efficiency of the public transportation system, the beautiful views of the lakes and the Alps, the Rösti (a Swiss version of hash browns) just to name some.

It was clear to us, however, that living in a non-English speaking country is too much of a challenge. Constant reminders every time we received a letter from the tax authorities, our local community or even most of our service providers, and all the work involved in trying to translate such notices (Thank you Google translate!) Most trying of all was being away from family and friends, having to get on a plane any time we wanted to visit with our parents (CT or Mallorca).

A picture of our new house:

Our new house in Sherman, CT

Now we are getting settled in, most of our boxes are unpacked and gone, and we are getting into our routines. We still have some things to sort and put away – mostly in the basement and office, but we are getting there.

We’ll work on getting some more pictures up in the near future, and get back to posting more regularly.

Well since I had to rebuild the site, I figured I should look for a new provider and because I only do this as a hobby, would give myself 3 or 4 weeks to do it, but in worst case scenario, I have my old hosting account until March 2010. So, I have moved to Arvixe and if you see this post you are on the new server

So far the experience has been quite seemless, and I hope you also find the new server performs faster.

Here are some pictures we took -