Yesterday I wrote about the special kind of friends with whom we can be open about our hopes and fears, and they will sit with us in total acceptance. Today I want to write about other kinds of friends. In a few minutes I will leave to have brunch with several women with whom I share an occasional lunch, dinner, and today brunch. One is a current work colleague, but sadly most are now former colleagues.
The occasion for today's celebration is a visit by one who moved back to her native state of California, and most of us haven't seen her for 15 months. Among us there will be warmth, joy, and laughter. There will be curiosity about what has been going on in our lives. There will be concern and support. Perhaps mostly, there will be connection born of a time and place when we collaborated together on a common mission: to make life at our agency better for the people work there.
In Leading from the Heart I wrote about the experience of people coming together every day to produce a newspaper, the business in which I spent 10 years of my career. I think it matters not whether it is a federal agency or the newspaper business or any one of 22 other industries in which I have worked over the years; what matters is the magic that happens when a group of people share a mission. Together we are more than the sum of our parts. We are able to accomplish something in community that the same people working alone could not accomplish. It connects us.
Over the years, I have made friends at many of the career stops I've made along the way. There is still something about that magic that continues to connect us 20-30 years later. Today I look forward to coming together in warmth with a special group and sharing our connection.
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