Miracle of Community

As the year comes to an end, I find the current work I'm in also ending in a way by morphing and evolving into something new.  It will take on new associates to understand the current project in order to move it forward.  This is a time of great patience on both sides and usually some compromise.  Sounds a bit like a marriage, doesn't it?

Since it's more than just two people I tend to think of it as the community of people who are participating in the hand-off of sorts.

During one such meeting yesterday to familiarize more people with the work there was much resistance and confusion.  Those of us in the understanding part did our very best to exhibit patience and continuity in explaining it. It was a coming together of sorts.

Let's back up four months.  Those same people that are all on the same side of 'giving' the work to the next group were all in their own camps - resistant to coming together and many times resistant to me!  It felt like high school - where the jocks were in one group, the brains in another, the stoners, etc … and now this group of disjointed people are all the seniors welcoming in the freshman.

We nod and wink at each other knowingly.  Yes, we didn't always get along but we have something rather significant in common, and now we need to prepare the next group to take the baton.

That overwhelming feeling came over me yesterday during a conversation after the meeting.  I am one of the seniors in this case, welcoming the new class.  As usual, previous to this ending I didn't reside in any of those groups, but a random group of outsiders that saw my own path and followed it.  I had a role that was singular, and moved between the groups of different skill sets ensuring that each had what they needed to accomplish their deliverables.

This community, I'm referring to is shared by all of us in the work.  We believe in what we've accomplished.  We're proud and willing to share.  And in the coming together of our efforts, laying our differences aside we've accomplished great things!  And the time has come to bring others along.

So instead of a pot-luck dinner in a community hall, or a hazing incident as would happen in high school we set up meetings to socialize.  And make no mistake, there are the nods and winks that occur between us, united us in a way we hadn't seen possible.

This unity, this community was a miracle on the stormy path yesterday.  It made me very grateful!