From Lisa: Time off
I had to come across the ocean to find time to BE. It is something I know well, “take time to balance” and yet, I raced around fitting in the last email and phone call before the taxi came pick me up for the airport. Off to a conference for women’s leadership.
And what was I expecting? Certainly a break form the frenzy, yeah! I needed it. To my surprise, even the taxi cab became a place of respite. The half hour drive was a silent relaxation to space for me and the plane ride was the same. Ahh. Rest.
What do leaders need is the question that was posed. If I am putting on a conference series for leaders then we need to know what it is they lack and what we can provide. Rest, reflection time. Support in coming into their own inner wisdom something few of us seem to be able to fit in these days.
This was confirmed to me, I reflect back, by the gentleman standing on the airport check-in line. He was off to chair a conference in Florida, something he has done for several years. His colleagues, government workers in the telecommunication industry, needed to get way, be treated well, some golf, some lobster dinners and lots of meetings, he said.
And yet, what he waxed poetically about for most of our conversation, which was long because the airport on a Friday night was bursting with people, was a month long program he took ten years ago.
It was the best time of his life, he said. A time way for holistic leadership training. Holistic. He reminisced at how this training filled his life for a year or so and then he felt he needed a refresher.
Although he keeps birdseed in his office to at least symbolize that he wants to take time out to literally feed the birds during his busy day as a time in nature to recoup some energy, he rarely does it. He KNOWS that time is important, Even a ten minute respite. I suggest he tell his 700 colleagues in Florida this week to take ten minutes of quiet time during their lunch break. He laughs. They would rather be on their blackberry’s . I tease him, “Right! So tell them to put them down and go hang out in the sunshine. You will be in Florida. They will be so much more creative when they come back”.
We will see. I hope he does it. And for me. I hope I do it more often as well. I am grateful to be among the women here at this intimate conference as we dance, play, eat, dialogue and find time to be, together and alone in our stillness. To allow our own unique creative juices to flow freely, once again. How easy it is to forget to nourish the soil, our own bodies and minds, so they can grow ever more feely and deeply and creatively.