Letter from the Vineyard

Or, as it seems to me…

It’s quiet all around me. I am at Odyssey where I have been doing a long term consulting assignment and that’s coming to an end. Everyone has left and thinking the place empty, they even turned out the lights. I didn’t protest; I think I wanted the quiet and the privacy. I’ve been packing up and will drive my personal things back to the cottage tomorrow afternoon.

While I am excited about the future, new beginnings, new adventures, new directions, there IS something sad about an ending. Nick Stuart, the CEO of Odyssey, has become a more than dear friend and we have traveled the US together. He has been my train companion. Three times we have crossed the US by train, developing a rhythm and a sense of adventure for each trip.

It will be sad not to see him as frequently. We’ll still be friends but the lack of proximity will make it more work and less spontaneous. We’ve been known to sneak out on afternoon to see a film, most recently the wonderful GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY.

It also is sad because I had a friendship crash and burn here. That saddens me but I’m a tougher old bird than I sometimes credit myself for. Once I realized, knew, understood I was dealing with someone toxic, I became almost relieved – I quit thinking I was imagining it and accepted it for real. It is sad when people turn out to be not who they present themselves to be. It’s a really bad kind of betrayal. But we humans are capable of that dark bit too.

I settled in here, made the office they let me use a bit of home, hung some favorite artwork and brought in some lamps to make it homier. I will miss that sense of workplace familiarity and will have to recreate it somewhere new when I land on my next direction.

Usually in my life one thing has pretty seamlessly moved on to another thing. I have some things in play but nothing has definitely lined up. And I’m not, strangely enough, anxious about it. I’m actually looking forward to some time to sort things out and to sit more on the deck of the cottage, watching summer shift to fall and to practice working with words a bit more.

If you’re reading this blog, you know I have been doing it more and the doing more of it is so that I learn the discipline of working with words on a regular basis. There are some things on the tip of my fingers that seem to want to come out, things I want to say, thoughts I want to give form to.

It’s the end of an era, said Nick, about my departing. Odyssey is moving in a different direction and there isn’t a place for a digital person in the future they are imagining.

It’s an end of an era for me, too. While a consultant, this was a consistent gig, a place regularly come to and regularly contributed to and now it’s winding down and I’m waiting for the next adventure to wind up. The thought brings a smile to my face.

Tags: Betrayal, Mathew Tombers, Nick Stuart, Odyssey Networks

This entry was posted on August 21, 2014 at 10:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.