I have worked in an office for over 40 years. The last office I worked in for over 15 years and I spent more time with people in the office on a weekly basis than I did with my husband and children. We celebrated in happy times; wedding showers, birthdays, buying a house, promotions, births, Christmas and consoled and supported in times of tragedy; fires and death of children, spouse, parent and colleague.
There were get-togethers outside of work, but I never attended those. I never wanted to take more time away from my family.
Then I was let go and I was ready to leave the job, but I wasn’t ready to leave the office and some of the people.
Now I was with my family every day, all day. I can’t tell you how happy that made my family. The people in the office who had filled my days, I never saw any more. I am sure there were some people there who were dancing for joy over that.
But there was a core group in the office; we had been through a lot over the years, we had grown together as individuals and as a team and we had built something together that we were very proud of and it was difficult not seeing them every day.
We started getting together once a month for dinner. I looked forward to seeing everyone and catching up on what was happening. Of course, COVID put a stop to our dinners for over a year but we kept track of each other in a group text and we had our first dinner last week. It was great seeing everyone again. Everyone works from home now with no end of that in sight. We talked about getting out and hiking or meeting at a gym instead of going out to dinner since everyone wanted to get out and exercise.
I am not sure what we will end up doing and it doesn’t matter to me what we do. I just want to continue to see them and laugh together.
Talk to you next month. Until then, may you be blessed with warmth in your home, love in your heart, peace in your soul and joy in your life.