Enjoying the Journey

Please bear with me today; I'm blown like a bubble with competing thoughts, so I'll trickle a stream of consciousness and do my best to tie things together near the end.

These past three weeks have been a whirlpool; I'm hopeful there's a point of encouragement somewhere in the swirl. 

 

1. Random Thought Bubble #1.  This past week, I was the last to board a plane and as I proceeded toward the rear of the aircraft, I scanned all the overhead bins before me, noticing they were closed.  The flight was oversold, and I was simply thrilled to have caught it.  As I passed the only open bin (about halfway to my seat) I stuffed my bulky overcoat inside, knowing I'd barely have room enough at my feet for my bag. 

The flight was uneventful, but within the final few minutes, as I gathered all my things and shoved them in my bag, I found a stranger's notebook in the seatpocket in front of me.  A prior occupant's.  I scanned it quickly, looking for a name, card, phone number, anything.  Finding nothing identifiable, I wrote "28A" on the cover and prepared to hand it to a flight attendant, should the occupant realize his forgetfulness and seek it later. 

I was the last person off the plane.  As I proceeded to the bin where I had stuffed my coat, I discovered it was gone.  In its place was a different coat!  I looked around, saw no other coats, grabbed this one, bolted up the jetway and looked everywhere for someone wearing my coat.  No one was to be found.  I returned to the plane, found a flight attendant, and in a very confusing way, handed over the notebook and the coat.  "Here.  Neither of these is mine; they are from different people.  And by the way, someone has my coat."

It was mild madness.  She was perplexed, unsympathetic, and I spent the next thirty minutes explaining the 'loss of my coat' to an equally disinterested redcoat and baggage claim agent.  (Apparently, the airline has no 'claim process,' and retrieving the coat is not as easy as emailing the passengers and asking, "Anyone take a coat or missing a coat?")  Needless to say, it is gone forever, and I'm confident that both the notebook and remaining coat are also lost to eternal winds by now. 

 

2. Random Thought Bubble #2.  A few nights ago, about twenty of us had dinner at the rollicking Hofbrau House on the outskirts of Cincinnati.  One of the men at dinner made an interesting comment -- one I've heard before in similar ways.  "After about ten years [with my former employer], I could read the writing on the wall.  It occurred to me that I couldn't work there another twenty years, and that no leaders had taken a particular interest in my career.  I ejected." 

Today, he seems much happier.  He is with a great group of people, doing meaningful work, and I'm confident he'll thrive.

 

3. Random Thought Bubble #3.  Several quotes have crossed my radar these past few weeks.  I've heard some of them before, but it always intrigues me when I hear several in a row -- from disparate sources -- that seem somehow related or similar.  In these trying times, I hope they resonate or encourage you somehow: 

"For those who believe, no proof is necessary.  For those who don't believe, no proof is possible."  Stewart Chase

"In youth, we learn.  In age, we understand."  Marie Ebner von Eschenbach

"I never teach my pupils.  I only attempt to provide the conditions in which they can learn."  Albert Einstein

"You can measure a person's greatness by how much it takes to discourage him."  Robert Savage

"He who argues for his limitations gets to keep them."  Richard Bach

 

4. Random Thought Bubble #4.  In the last five days, I have heard from several dear friends who were either passed over for a promotion or let go.  Their frustration, disappointment, and anger are palpable.  Concurrently, I am also aware of others, both friends and acquaintances, whose organizations are thriving and raging successfully. 

The contrast is so amazingly stark.  It's as if there are two economies running in tandem.  On the one hand, there is misery, challenge, worry, fear, paranoia, and insecurity.  But on the hand right beside it is elation, opportunity, hope, excitement, and security.  Bizarre.  At the very point in time when hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people are losing jobs each month, there are pockets of people whose businesses are experiencing their greatest growth in a decade. 

Fascinatingly, it is so representative of our world.  Just as a billion people awake each day to running water, heated homes, adequate nutrition, and healthy living conditions, nearly five billion people awake each morning without many or any of these....

 

5. Random Thought Bubble #5.  On Sunday, when discussing 'the coat incident,' I told my wife and daughter that I wanted a new sweater and sportcoat for the Spring.  (I can count on two fingers the new clothes I have purchased for myself in the last twenty months: in June 2008, I bought a $19.00 shirt for my twenty-year high school reunion.  In October 2007, I bought the coat that someone mistakenly snagged!  Needless to say, my closet is a well-preserved time capsule.  I can [and do] still wear clothes I wore in high school, and I recently wore my 1993 wedding tuxedo to the local Father-Daughter dance on February 7th.  Because I wear so few articles and repeatedly, I have several other things in my closet that last for 'decades.')

As we spoke of these two items to purchase, little Lauren grabbed a pink spiral notebook and wrote the words, "Daddy."  "Coral."  "Salmon."  And so, with the mommy-recommended-colors in hand, we set out for a daddy-daughter-date-day to fish.

Eight stores later, having caught only ice cream, we returned home empty-handed. 

I think I'll just wear what I already have in the closet.

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But what a fun day we had, Lauren's tiny, sweaty hand gripping mine as we trudged through parking lots, malls, and along sidewalks of every hue.     

We had a purpose, she and I.  Despite our legs nearly giving out, we bounced along for hours.

And although our 'fishing expedition' hadn't quite worked out, we still enjoyed the journey, laughed, talked a great deal, and rewarded ourselves with ice cream. 

I think the day served as a great reminder for me.

Sometimes in our distractedness, we lose things -- or they are taken from us.  We needn't perceive this as maliciousness. 

Sometimes in our career, we realize we've leaned our ladder against the wrong organization.  We need only move it. 

Sometimes, when we get really still or quiet, we see or hear things that were right there all along.  We need only look and listen. 

Sometimes, when we feel really small or frail or as if we've failed, it's important to keep things in perspective and realize how blessed we truly are.  We need only appreciate. 

And sometimes, when we set out to sea for whatever expeditions lie before us -- whether fishing for coral, salmon, or joy -- we should keep our hands and hearts open and give thanks for the journey itself and our companions along the way.