If everything is energy and just living life is an ongoing energy exchange, even a country pulses with a unique energy all its own. Each of us likely interprets that energy differently but for me the English and Irish countryside dotted with its little, ancient villages, filled to the brim with its friendly, charming people and of course it’s lilting accents and music feels like sipping warm tea by a fire with an old friend. My parents tell me I’m of German descent, but I must have some English heritage in there somewhere. I just know I must.
We’ve had a fabulous visit to these two countries and are now charting our course back home. I have the sense this week of an expanded definition of “home” for me. On the one hand, exposure to new ideas and expanded understandings of history, art, literature, and traditions has me feeling that we are all bound together in more ways than we might ordinarily think and with that expansion comes a broader view of what “home” for me might include. It somehow seems possible to be “at home” almost anywhere in the world with this feeling of interconnectedness.
Conversely, I’ve also experienced a knowing that there is more than I could ever see, experience, or understand in this enormous world of ours and where I was once feeling unsettled about that notion, knowing I would never be able to do or see it all in what’s left of my life… I’m now starting to believe that travel has helped me to appreciate the sweetness and simple perfection of my life back home.
The same could be said for our work. From office to office, business to business, and speaker to speaker, there is a broader connectedness than you might imagine. When we are cocooned in our small professional spaces, it’s easy to assume that others have it figured out or don’t have the same troubles, challenges, or experiences as we do but it’s simply not true. As I travel around North America and the world, the leadership, communication, team culture, and client service challenges are hugely similar, if not identical.
And yet, our situations are also unique in their small and individual ways. With a broad exposure to thousands of professionals, you realize that wherever you go… there you are… and that our current professional “home” is perfect in what it has to teach us and provide for us at this moment.
I somehow missed that last week was the first Monday of the month which is traditionally our “Music Monday.” Thankfully, I get to make up the rules so this month, it falls to the second Monday. I’m sharing a song written from an old Irish blessing and sung by the Celtic Thunder which Tom and I had the pleasure of seeing in person last year. It seems a fitting song to leave our friends across the pond and to welcome us back home. It also seems a fitting song for my wish for you this week as you face your professional and personal challenges, hopefully with a renewed sense that you are definitely not alone and perfectly “at home” wherever you are in this moment of your journey.
Here’s to a great week ahead!
Celtic Thunder Inspirational
– May the Road Rise To Meet You
“May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again
May you keep safe
In the gentle loving arms of God
For everything there is a season
A time for meeting
A time to say goodye
In all things
God is near
Always guiding your way
May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again
May you keep safe
In the gentle loving arms of God
For everything there is a season
A time for loving
A time for letting go
In all things
God is near
Always guiding your way
May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
May the rain fall softly on your fields
And until we meet again
May you keep safe
In the gentle loving arms of God”
