For Rosa and Dick.
The other day I found myself in a state of complaint. The recession, of course, and what it has done to my business. It’s clear, adding up the cancelled work for this year that I have lost a significant amount. I wrote to a good friend, Tom, about my state of mind. Tom is a compassionate and honest guy. He replied:
Perhaps, like many of us, this is a time of forced reflection on what are we really doing here, and what is the legacy we can leave. You have certainly left your mark on many of us. But it ain’t over yet, and I’m sure that out of the havoc will arise new opportunities and beginnings.
“Drats,” I thought to myself. “Caught in victim-thinking again.”
And so it is. A time for re-invention. I have gone through similar periods, notably after 9/ll and at other times during my career when working in a particular direction or with a particular client has come to an end. Despite the financial fears (will I ever work again? work this big?), it is also a time when something else always seems to come forward, something stark and beautiful that speaks of re-grounding, pushing the reset button, going back to “beginner’s mind.”
If someone asks me about my favorite season, I will usually say spring. And yet, given a choice, would I ever go through winter again? It’s hard to say. Chastened by my friend’s comments I took a walk to the local park to clear my mind. Sure enough the answers were there in the emerging green clouds of new leaves, sometimes hardly more than dust on the branches it seemed — but definitely there.
Along the lake, I discovered the willows greening up and the iris that suddenly had reappeared — as a duck paddled across the sky. Trilliums, those magical flowers one must not pick lest they fail to reappear for seven years, poked their lovely heads out of the dried leaves of the past season.
And I was slain again by the beauty of the cherry blossoms fluttering down in a warming breeze to litter my path.
Something springs up, something re-invents me in the hard times. Can I let that happen again?
Synchronistically, a client had asked me to plan a day of training — one of the cherished few left on my schedule. Suddenly I was back in front of my screen and I was thinking. What should be the topic? With a little inspiration from Peter Koestenbaum, a title for my day came to mind: Claiming Your Freedom: Exercises in Organizational Courage.
All this lyricism about recycling. Can it pay off in a harsh political world where money is king? And yet, could there be a better time, really, to talk about the courage of new growth?
I hate winter.
I love the spring.
I don’t even know where to begin. Well…with thanks!
This post took me so many places. To the months after 9/11, when my consulting business fell through the floor and I decided I’d had enough anyway. To palling around with Peter Koestenbaum, one of America’s best kept secrets. To a day on a lake or a river with a camera and my thoughts. Or a fly rod.
Muddy paths, ducks, cherry blossoms…all those pregnant images.
To this variation on a common saying, “When one door closes another opens. But it can be hell in the hallway.”
And “the courage of new growth.”
This entire post is flat-out beautiful my friend.
You are welcome…makes me feel this is all just a matter of listening to the river.…
My very first thought? Dan complaining? It just can’t be…
My second thought; toss the work altogether; I’d love to be that duck!
Then, “courage of new growth?†Sure, why not! Would so love to have your last photo wallpapering every room of my house, yet at this moment I am sooo content having it line the chambers of my heart.
Freedom has long been a favorite word, and a constant mission, and having the freedom to reinvent and recycle is such a blessing. We hit “refresh†in countless ways; Dick Richards, you are an inspiration too, so much so! We are the self-employed worker-dreamers who CAN take a weekday walk and notice reflections in puddles, then return to a keyboard with gifts in our heart, crafted of our mana‘o [our deepest thoughts and convictions, our self-truth] and of the friendships we celebrate and thrive within. Poor needy us, who wear our emotions as blog posts, email missives and journal entries… blessed are we poor coaches and consultants, the ‘luxuries’ of the business world.
Your photos lift my spirit today Dan, and your voice cheers my heart as it always does. We know how wise you are, and your greatest wisdom is in how you make us want to play. For the rest of today I think I will be Rosa the duckling.
Yes, as you say, Rosa, we are the “self-employed worker-dreamers.” I consider it to be a kind of sacred trust, because we have the freedom to do what many others do not have the freedom or permission to do — which is to reflect, and to bring back from our mountain tops aid for all others who search us out. This is nothing to ever take for granted. As work, indeed, it has its special challenges to be a “luxury” of the business world.
You (and anyone else) can find the original 7M photo of “new leaves” here for whatever wall paper you would like to use it for.
And as for Rosa the duckling, well, that really quacks me up! [Such pun-ishment! Moan!]