The garden at the back of my home produces tomatoes, pattypan squashes, cucumbers, tomatillos, kale, and wax beans. Though we started late, the garden became exceptionally productive. While I would like to say that my green thumb made this happen, I believe another actor deserves the credit.Almost as if they punch a clock, every morning early, fleets of bees work the garden. Busy collecting nectar, depositing pollen, and enjoying a symbiotic relationship. Their work enables the plant to create a fruit or legume, which becomes our food. They work every day for as long as they can until they can’t.Approaching life likes bees means getting up and doing the work you’re meant to do. That work might involve self-care, being generous with your time to help others, or producing something meaningful - work that matters. That work we do will produce fruit.   Self-care produces health and wellness.  Helping others creates effective relationships.  Doing works that matter builds self-efficacy.If the birds, bees, and flees can do it, so can we.

On Sunday, the Green Bay Packers will start their season off playing the Minnesota Vikings. While I love the Packers, I happily associate with Vikings fans. Chicago Bears fans? Maybe.Have you noticed that we have become increasingly more aware of the teams we are on?  Packers versus the Vikings. Democrats versus Republicans. Black Lives Matter versus All Lives Matter? Does it end? If so, where?Humans need two things to survive - to seek safety and avoid threats. Being communal animals, we find safety with others who believe the way we do - our tribe. But when you compound job loss, isolation, and depression with repetitive divisive rhetoric on a 24-hour news cycle, it’s easy to feel we need something solid. Unfortunately, that solid ground comes in the form of the loudest voice that resonates with us. Unfortunately, the loudest voices tend to be the ones that divide.Unlike sports, our tribes aren’t better than the others - they’re different. Republicans are different than Democrats in how they think about governance. Does that make one right and the other wrong? Maybe. Does that make one good and the other bad? I don’t know.  I know that to create a culture where people come together to do great things requires each of us to tolerate the other. Tolerate means to accept another as different and be okay with it. Tolerate means that we can still work together and find what’s in common.  We all have something in common. We hope, breathe, and live our stories. And our stories are beautiful and complicated - at the same time.  There’s a tribe that many of us don’t go to explore often enough. That tribe is full of people who enjoy breathing, learning, and growing. They also enjoy serving others. Perhaps you know people like this.

There is a point when you’ve over-explained your point.  You’ve said more than what needed to be said.You’ve justified, advocated, and defended enough.What is the over-explanation for? Who is it for? The over-explanation is for you - the communicator. And it is for self-assurance. That you said what needed to be said, covered the point from every angle, and for self-justification.  I’m trying to find the simplest and most direct way to communicate. And I am trying to be “okay” that you’ll make of it what you will.  The art is not the words. It’s the response.

I wish I learned how to ask more questions and be wrong more often. I wish I learned less about how to study for an exam.

I wish I learned how to find opportunities to do more projects. I wish I learned less about how to be compliant.

I wish I learned more about my relationship with God and my faith.I wish I learned less about religion.

I wish I read more books. I wish I read fewer textbooks.

I do not like vacations. The idea of leaving my work stresses me out. Driving a long distance, spending money, and being away from my bed are reasons I dislike vacations.  I just got back from a vacation - 5 days away. I didn’t end up spending that much money, traveling long distances, and I wasn’t away from my bed for that long. What I will say is that the vacation taught me something I needed to re-learn: step out to get perspective.The act of being away from home, work, my books, and this blog allowed me to re-think my capabilities.  What could I do with this upcoming month?  What could I write?How could I serve people better?I had an opportunity to recharge.Time outside hiking.Looking at and traveling to new places.Trying new food.Now I am here writing to you with thousands of ideas. Thinking what will come first, second, and so-on. Consider a vacation.

A book communicates a passionate writer’s idea to an audience. It’s the stage upon which a performance takes place. The magic isn’t in words. The magic is in your head - when the words transform into something more. What are you reading?

Did you ever play in large moving boxes and wonder if they were spaceships? Forts? Igloos?  I feel like I never stopped being a kid. I dream big. I never stop.  Recently I spoke with someone interested in learning more about my experience as a diversity recruiter. They were curious about how to network and recruit black, brown, indigenous - I prefer “First Nations,” and LGBTQIA+ people. I have a problem with this type of thinking - it’s not a box I want to play in.  People are more than their ethnicity.People are more than their sexual identities.People are more than their preferred pronouns or gender identities.  People are more than their veteran status.People are just what they are - and nothing more.  How do I network with these people? I don’t.  I seek out people who believe there’s got to be something more - doers! If they happen to be brown - fine. But I find that people like us attract others who do what we do.  If you see people for more than what they look like, you will attract people who want to be seen that way.  The box is the problem because we, as a culture, have a hard time looking beyond the box.  “Well we have systemic racial inequality, it’s important to hire black people.”  I’m with you. I agree. But that’s not the reason to hire someone who is black. That’s the reason to go out and find someone who wants to do something worth something for someone else and who happens to be black.  I don’t want to be limited by how others see race, identity, or the boxes we check on job applications.I want to live life in the box that is a spaceship, a fort, or a life where we see people as they are, as they want to show up, and we let them know - “Hey, I see you.”  The box is the problem. And it’s a problem because we refuse to see everything it really is, ever was, and could become.

It is Friday morning, the 28th of August. I’m sitting at the table. There’s a small cup of coffee to the left. And to the right, a stack of books. My mind is blank. Crickets are busy. All I can feel is the readiness to do something worth something. Eager to start.

When you’ve taken a job interview, do you notice that it’s often a 1-way flow of information? From you to someone else. It’s not always a 2-way exchange. Why?“At the end of the interview, if there’s time, we’ll get to some of your questions.” Will you?  I am writing this post to you now because I am thinking about people. I am thinking about what it means to help people find more work that matters to them. And I am thinking about how do we help people do more? Be more productive? Do more of what makes them come alive?  And I’m left with one thought - you have to see them first.  But you don’t truly see others until they validate you with, “yes, you see me. I am seen.”  If I had to change one thing about culture now, it would be how we interview. I would require a recruiter or hiring manager to ask the job seeker, “what do you want to get out this conversation? What makes this conversation useful for you?”  And lastly, I would require them to ask for validation at the end. The recruiter would recap what they heard and ask, “do you feel I’ve seen you as you want to be seen?“For me, that’s the real work of recruiting.  It’s also a way to help people feel heard, seen, and validated.  If someone interviewed me that way, even if I didn’t get the job, I’d still walk away feeling like I had an opportunity to do something worth something for someone. I’ll take that.

Write this date down, August 27, 2020.  It was the day that I woke up and smiled.  And not just any smile.  As my eyes opened, a smile came across my face.  I can remember feeling contented, open-minded, and rested.  What did I do the night before?I journaled, I read “Meditations,” I reminded myself what I accomplished, and I created an intention of “sleep.”  I also remind myself of this statement.  With all that’s going on in the world - good or bad - we can only do what we can to move through with equanimity.  No one can breathe for us.No one can move for us.  No one can act for us.  We are in control of only what we can do.  And that’s calming.