Leading by Stephanie Reynolds & Thinking by Jeri Hodgin

Leading virtually
by Stephanie Reynolds, West Seattle, WA

For those of us in the Puget Sound, the last few weeks have been confusing and trying. I have gone through my own fears, worrying about my loved ones, and then of course my business and the businesses of those I support and the people in them. I found myself triaging like crazy, trying to hang on to the way things were, hoping that “life and business as usual” would continue. But life as usual is on pause for now.

There was another side effect, as a small business owner and a mega people person, many of my meetings were being postponed for good reasons.  I noticed that I began to feel a bit unfocused and even lonely.

A realization dawned on me in the last couple of days.

First and foremost, when I was engaged with others moving forward toward creative solutions and connection (virtually or not), I felt the best.  My worries took a back seat, and my body was relieved. I felt like myself again!

Secondly, once I stopped worrying about the future, and started offering my time to those in need, I felt my heart and sense of purpose again. My purpose has always been to help people and organizations move through growth, challenge, and change, and I realized that I needed to apply that to the present situation.

Click here to visit Stephanie’s blog and read her suggestions.

Thinking
by Jeri Hodgin, Seattle, WA

It is a lot quieter than usual. There are fewer planes overhead and less noise from the nearby busy street. I have to think twice before deciding whether I want to go to the store to pick up my supply of frozen blueberries or other necessities. I am really glad my yoga studio has not closed and that my teacher seems to be healthy, even though the class is about 1/4 of its normal size.

I regret that my nursing license is expired and that even if it wasn’t, it probably wouldn’t be prudent at my age to help in most situations.

Mostly, I am thinking about the underpaid workers, the homeless, the kids who can’t go to school who really need to be there, the over-worked health professionals (who we all should be extra patient with), Food Lifeline having to figure out how to repackage food and get it to our food banks without the help of all the volunteers they depend on; the Senate that doesn’t want to pass legislation that will help anyone get through this; the excellent work of Governor Inslee, Mayor Durkan and County Executive Constantine in doing whatever they can to mitigate the effects of this pandemic.

I think about the proposal of one of Obama’s economic advisors who said the best economic relief would be to send people money to get them through this and how little chance there is that our current government will do anything like this.

I am so grateful for having a Nook and the Seattle Public Library lending books online.

Seems like a good opportunity to call my friends and catch up.