Friends and community
This last week I was reminded just how valuable friends and community are, especially for those of us who (mostly) work alone.
I was in India. Chennai. A city of some million people. I asked one of the Indian participants the population of Chennai. To be fair, he wasn’t from there, and his answer was, “Maybe 5 million. Or it could be 10 million. Not sure.” I pointed out that that was a 5 million difference. He shrugged, and smiled. I guess that’s how you feel about population when you come from a country that has 1,140,000,000+ people.
I was facilitating a five-day workshop with numbers varying from 80+ people to around 30. Participants came from around the world. Some were fresh and enthusiastic. Others were tired and jaded. This made for some interesting dynamics! The expectations also varied widely with lots of factions and interest groups jockying for position. While this kept me busy trying to juggle all these expectations, I was also on high alert watching for offers and noticing without judging – harder than it sounds!
Even though I was surrounded by people, many of whom I had met before, it was a bit lonely. I couldn’t download all of my thoughts to anyone, so my computer and my friends that live in it became a lifeline to sanity, to laughs, to reality and to some bloody good advice. So to my friends on skype, on Facebook, on ning and on email – a heartfelt thank you.
What a lovely post. It sounds like you were carrying a lot of responsibility – being on high alert for five days doesn’t sound comfortable, especially if you were alone. Good on you for reaching out for some help when you needed it. I could do more of that.
Cheers,
Stuart
Hi Stuart – I think reaching out is something we can all do a lot more of (and support each other in that too). Well said.
Cheers
Viv