Thank you for being a friend

Tonight I had the enormous privilege of getting together with fabulous folks I used to work with in what now seems like a previous life, but in fact was just another job.

Conversation flowed, our interest in each other was both real and palpable and time just flew past. Laughter, celebration, curiosity and just plain old listening were all there in spades; there just wasn't enough time to get all the catching up, brainstorming, plotting and scheming done. We all wanted more and were sad when the evening ended.

And why is that?

I know when I'm in the fray of a job, project or work challenge I rarely feel like stopping to make it a 'Kodak Moment'* in fact the very opposite is often true, often I just put my head down and power through whatever is the particular 'problem d'jour'.

But on the inside something very different is happening, the folks who are in the same boat with me are by some strange mystical force branded with the same iron; we may have different actual memories but our solidarity and commitment to each other remains the intact. We remember that at one (or more) times in the past is was 'Us Against' whatever foe might have been besetting us at the time - internal or external  - and the fact that we lived to tell the tales is what matters.

These shared experiences force us to learn about each other really fast, we see how each other handles stress, life, relationships, values and oh yes not forgetting...work.

I'm so thankful for my work-friends both present and past; we share a rich heritage of secrets, language, learning and achievement that is impossible to replicate and frankly why would you even try?

Friends at Work = Joy & Love

*If you don't understand what a Kodak Moment is your are either Julie Drogemueller or Mandi Torrenga; please access Personal Electronic Device for the answer :-)

...anybody there?

Sorry to have left you languishing for so long - I was stuck in a moment and I couldn't get out of it!

For those of you who are my Facebook Friends, you'll know that for the last three weeks I've been being stalked...not by a person but by a song!!

The song is 'Stuck in a Moment' by U2 and it goes like this...

"I'm not afraid of anything in this world, There's nothing you can throw at me that I haven't already heard, I'm just trying to find a decent melody, A song that I can sing in my own company.I never thought you were a fool, but darling, look at you; You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight, These tears are going nowhere, baby.You've got to get yourself together, You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it, don't say that later will be better, now you're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it.I will not forsake the colours that you bring, the nights you filled with fireworks, they left you with nothing. I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me, I listen through your ears, through your eyes I can see.And you are such a fool to worry like you do,  I know it's tough and you can never get enough of what you don't really need now, my, oh my.I was unconscious, half asleep, The water is warm till you discover how deep,  I wasn't jumping, for me it was a fall It's a long way down to nothing at all.And if the night runs over, and if the day won't last, and if our way should falter along the stony pass.It's just a moment, this time will pass."

I've never been stalked by a song before, and its been quite an experience! It's been playing on the radio many times just as I switched it on or walked back into a room. Bono and The Edge appeared on David Letterman's show and just burst into it, and it's constantly rumbling round in my head and so I'm getting more and more curious.

As a Christian I've become very aware of patterns that appear in my life, as I've discovered that If I pay attention they often lead me towards or away from things or people that are either helpful or harmful for me. Things happen that only me and God could know about or appreciate and I choose to look at them as messages from him to me. It's awesome and I'm humbled and amazed each time it happens.

I'm not sure what the full intent of my 'stalker song' is just yet although it has caused me to think...what am I stuck in, what can't I get out of and what am I putting off till later. They're great deep questions and I'm glad they are mine for the moment.

Because as the very talented Bono & The Edge know "It's just a moment, this time will pass"