Days of the Week: Thursday and Friday
Due to writers and authors from all over the world participating in Poetry Friday, which you can read about here, with the host’s link often going live on Thursday afternoon or evening. I am NEVER ready for this. Never! I usually do not think of myself as a literal person but in this case, I definitely am. Friday means Friday and I am usually scrambling to get my post up by mid-day. This means I’m well at the back of the pack to post my blog to the forum.
Don’t get me wrong, it works. I still can post, still, get read, and still, able to comment. But, I am trying to retrain myself to create a Poetry Friday post earlier than, well, Friday, in the central US. This means I’ll spend some time working on it today (hopefully). But, I still need to write a post for Thursday too.
Today, I’m having coffee with an old workmate. We shared an office at the local land trust for which we both worked. He’s young enough to be my son, but I really enjoyed some camaraderie with him when we both worked for the same employer. He lasted two years longer than I, having only started a month later in 2019. I’m looking forward to catching up and hearing about his new conservation business venture in restoration. In addition, I’m sure we’ll catch up on some personal aspects of life too. He had just been married when I left the conservancy. His wife is lovely and helped fill a needed spot during one of the events I organized during my time with the land trust. I was very grateful for that. Being stressed at the time, I’m not sure I ever really expressed my gratitude. I’ll be sure to do that today.
One of the things I really appreciated about this co-worker was that he was virtually the only one on the staff of eight people that seemed interested enough to ask about my boys (my youngest was a junior in high school at the time and ripping up the high school track season with his sprinting ability). He regularly commented on my son’s accomplishments at staff meetings. To me, this was what supportive staff do for each other. But, I got a different vibe after he commented a few times. The vibe was like, “we don’t talk about personal stuff here at work.” His compliments were shut down and as the two newest members of the staff, it was easy to see, we were not supported in this personal banter.
The fact that this type of interaction was not supported bothered me. A small staff can become like family. The more one is supported, the more one wants to invest.
It was clear to me early on that working for the land trust was not the “right” job for me. I think I saw this being true for my coworker as well. Fortunately, I could get out. He needed to stay but it sounds like the right time to leave arrived for him as well. Two years later, we have a lot to catch up on.
As I was leaving to meet him, birds were singing a spring song from the trees across the street. I recognized the song as that of a robin (or perhaps two, as the song seemed to be answered).
Ahhh, could it be that Spring is on the horizon? We can only hope. And, thus, my Poetry Friday post is born. Maybe, I’ll get it up tonight after all!
Originally published at http://theapplesinmyorchard.com on February 17, 2022.
