Saturday Salutation: Energy without Power

This week has been real challenge for so many in the Northeast. Like many of my neighbors, and millions in the DC area, our power was out for several days. We were among the lucky ones that had a fairly quick recovery. As we were driving yesterday we saw a brigade of Gas and Electric trucks parading to their next mission. Work is still underway a week later. It is over 100 degrees.

What struck me most throughout this outage was how people everywhere were connecting with so much energy. Scenes where normally people would be just doing, they were doing and talking about it. At the Starbucks, long lines of un-showered, decaffeinated strangers were all talking about their situations and their scenes, “yeah, we all slept in the basement too”, “it’s great to see my kids reading books” “where are you on the grid?” “I have an elderly mom I am worried about.” “Do you need anything?”

Now, I have been to that Starbucks many times. Usually people are waiting silently in the line, looking straight ahead waiting for their name to be sharpied on to a plastic cup. It is only people who already know one another taking time to connect over coffee.

It was also all the people with their laptops plugged in to the walls lining my gym again all talking about what they were working on and how it needed to get out today. This brought up deeper conversations about what they did for a living and how that connected to the fires in Colorado, the school they were applying to, or the blog they were writing.

I wonder why it is so much harder to see the possibility for connection with the lights on?

Namaste.

“For those just connecting with my blog, on Saturdays I write a lighter post reflecting on life’s moments and observations that inspire my leadership, and then the week looks at leadership from many angles.
Thanks to all who became email subscribers this week. I look forward to connecting with you regularly. I migrated my site to a self-hosted version to provide a richer experience. Email following will be the most reliable way to find me for now.
Next week’s theme will be energy in leadership. I hope you will join the conversation.”