Gratitude Practice 2016 Nov 9: My YouthCity Family
Every Wednesday at 10:30am our YouthCity team meets for our weekly managers meeting. We sit around a large wooden rectangle table where agendas are circulated, items discussed, programs planned and information is exchanged. We assemble in this tiny room every seven days and have for years. Most Wednesdays are productive and are peppered with laughter and jokes only shared with long-time co-workers who over time have become friends...and in our case....family. These meetings, like many in the work world, are both expected and routine but today's meeting was a conversation I will forever remember.
For well over an hour our team explored how we would address the results of the election with the kids in our programs. What it means to have the leader of the free world be someone who has consistently demonstrated demeaning hate speech, violent threats, crude insults and openly celebrated and encouraged sexual violence. In every essence of the word our country just confirmed the acceptance of bullying. What do we say to the impressionable young people who have watched and listened to adults behave in ways that would guarantee them a seat in detention. How do we reconcile this national double standard? How do we encourage trust in this leader when we ourselves are fearful? Today, I sat with my work family and we wept.... together. It's not a Democrat vs Republican thing.... it's way beyond that.... What are we doing to each other kind of thing? We wept. We shared. We asked big questions. We listened. We learned. It was incredibly powerful and inspiring to feel safe enough to be vulnerable as we all inch towards empathy and connection and understanding and action.
When this meeting ended I drove across town and had a similar conversation with my direct reports. Again, we asked these big questions and with heavy hearts and while wrestling with our own anxiety and disappointment and disillusionment we anticipated the arrival of our kids....our Hispanic kids, our black kids, our refugee kids, our white kids, our kids who are in foster care, our Muslim kids, our Catholic kids, our Mormon kids, our female kids, our male kids, our kids whose parents are undocumented, our kids whose parents are in prison...our kids...the future of our nation who just suffered an emotional sucked punch from those who are set up to lead them. My dream team wept and raged and vented and then we do what we do best. We did our jobs.
As we suspected, our kids rolled in with big questions and even bigger concerns. We talked and talked and talked about our feelings and we listened and listened and listened. And then...we went outside to enjoy some much needed sunshine and exercise. The night ended with some even more needed good clean fun. My team hosted an impromptu dance party complete with games and treats and thankfully some welcomed laughter and smiles. Mary Poppins had it right....a spoonful of sugar...or in this case a handful of Takies and a few cans of whipped cream...really does help the medicine go down.
Beyond grateful for the people I am lucky enough to work with. Extremely grateful for our fearless leader whose heart and vision and accurate empathy made all of the difference. Grateful that I get to learn from these incredible kids and work in this community. Grateful that tomorrow the sun will rise and....and if we do our jobs right...so will they.
