What a season. May we be giving during it, learn from it, and thrive coming out of it. Happy Holidays!
I want to wish all of you the best this holiday season. I’ve been considering how we, as businesses and individuals, mark the holidays this year. I think it is one where the variety of experiences needs to be recognized and considered especially by those of us that have had the good fortune to see their ships rise during this time.
The last 9 months has certainly been cause for concern for reasons that have been exhaustively commentated and debated upon. I see, more often, people rise above the fatigue with practicality that works past blind optimism; they are resolutely certain that they will continue to work, strive, and prevail though they don’t know exactly when this will end.
These are the physicians, nurses, CNA’s and others that are in facilities day in and day out. I know of a CNA that meditates in her car before her shift to prepare herself to care for her patients; even the more convinced of her decision to begin nursing school in January. I know a physician that, after long shifts in the ER, is on a zoom call working to improve how he leads; nurse leaders are working to improve how they can prevent burnout in their staff. Business owners are concerned not about how their business will grow next year, but how to bring their people back to work safely. I know people that have been indelicately laid off after a decade of service that put themselves back out there with courage and found positions that will value them well into the future. I know restaurant professionals that are looking to the spring to understand how they might emerge again even as they face unemployment this winter. I know freshman college students who have had the courage to fight through the isolation that descended on them this fall and still learn and grow. I admire their tenacity, their ability to admit they are very tired and at times they are unable to really do anything; and then, they get back up and try again.
Some of us have also been very successful during this time. This season, please remember to give to those that have had the greater weight of challenge during this year. Happy Holidays. We wish you peace and happiness.
Joe