Onward? Merely Onward?

Some years ago, I caught a terrible disease and very nearly died. The particulars matter little anymore. What was significant is the fight I made back from that, which reminded me, no, proved to me, what I had always hoped about myself: that I could rise to that challenge, and succeed. The times that followed my release from the hospital were some of the richest, abundant and glorious moments of my life; a great wealth of small miracles of everyday life and the experience of enjoying my family which nobody would have seen coming. The entire experience changed me deeply and forever.

Some years after that, my wife and I planned a somewhat lofty goal of climbing Kilimanjaro. We trained, acquired all the equipment necessary for the task, and were about to put it into action. But my company lost its biggest client. I lost my job. This fight brought me back to the city I love: San Francisco. And in the end my wife and daughter and I all relocated here in the Bay Area where we live now and where she met the love of her life. This too, changed us all.

While I do not think back much, reflection has its benefits, as it can highlight the patterns in life.

So here we are today. Living in Covid time. Most of us irritable, all of us inconvenienced, some of us unemployed, and a few of us dead. The economy is in shreds; it will be a long climb out. But the fight, while dark and terrible in the moment, tends to pave the way for good things ahead. Experiences that we might not otherwise have had, lessons that we might not otherwise have learned.

Am I an optimist? Yes. Am I a realist? Also yes. Not sure if that is a false dichotomy. Buddhism says that life is about suffering, about Duka. But I think much suffering is from the longing of things not possible. We never climbed Kilimanjaro, no. But I rarely think about that. We have not, this Summer, left to explore Europe (as we new retirees had planned to begin doing on this date as I write this). But to observe the patterns, learn from them, that's the thing. To incorporate them into your life planning. To live in the moment, and treasure what is in front of us, att the abundance of what is here, right now.

So what does this have to do with business? And why post this on Linked In?

Each of us will come out of this changed. This will continue to alter our work patterns, our commutes, the way we spend our efforts, has changed our global interconnectedness, our atmosphere, and I believe, the choices we make on what we do, how we spend our money, invest our time and prioritize our personal goals. I believe, all for the better.  

What do you think?