Today has been another day with a sequence of online meetings following one another.
Such meetings have been part of my routine for a few years. I’ve used them to do my work, to think with others about the work we can do, and to stay connected.
Two of today’s meetings stood out. Both were with friends with whom I also have a professional relationship. One is a client, the other is a colleague. Both calls were planned for work.
What connected both calls was that we looked beyond the situation as is.
We worked hard to understand our needs.
Virtual connections provide us with a different experience than in presence meetings. Being behind screens and often worlds apart transforms accountability. It’s easy to seem attentive and still do some browsing. This desire to be efficient by combining different tasks leads to avoiding being present.
It shows how easy it is to be distracted from being present with the other. Creating a sense of being present in virtual meetings is more work than in presence meetings.
Today, discussing what we miss and what we need led to an amplified presence during our calls. We connected beyond doing the work.
We exchanged about the benefits of in presence meetings, of our habits, of our sense of freedom. We saw how the decision to stay at home is a decision that is shared with the community and there to serve it and us.
The sensation to serve and be aligned is one that exists and invites us to be disciplined and share the idea of “we can do this” with others. In most exchanges, it leads to sharing how privileged we see ourselves and how there is no reason to complain. It’s how we present ourselves to others.
That doesn’t make the sense of “I missing ….” go away. It’s there too. Grieving what we are used to have and missing now is very much present with most of us.
Seeing that we have what we need and sensing that we are missing something is complementary. Both ideas belong to being the humans we are.
Both need to be acknowledged and accepted.
It is by seeing both that we can find the peace to accept the situation we are in.
That’s how we can transform it.
I know that by caring for another we transformed our relationships today.
