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"I'll have my people call your people!" I heard it first in a movie and thought it was a just a joke. Turns out the joke was mocking real life. People really did have people who called other people's people -- or "peeps" if you're up to date.
Since then I've realized that whether they talk to each other or not, we all need -- and hopefully have -- our people. This isn't a Barbra Streisand reprise. It isn't people in the generic. It's people in the specific: those we've come to trust because their knowledge, skills, insights or sheer presence makes the full expression of who we are possible.
I'm convinced that without the skill and steadiness of my friend, Sandi, I wouldn't be an astrologer today. Or at least not one I'd recommend. Because no matter how lucid the grasp of the planetary family, it turns out that in order to interface with the cosmos, you have to interface with another mysterious realm: computers, software, printers, set-ups, configurations, professional tape recorders with their so-called instructions and attached microphones. Not to mention the moral support needed by a fledging astrologer in early flight. So after 15 years, this much I know: there's something of Sandi in every one of my readings.
With each change of the calendar and its implied wisdom, I'm realizing that there's a lot more to this whole "people thing." Let's take a deeper look. |
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1. The secret to having people is the opposite of its one-way implication. The truth is, your people need to have you too. Regardless of whether or not you pay your peeps, there's a deeper exchange necessary -- it's called interdependency. And at its best, it grows rose-bush roots.(Ever try to dig up on of those beauties?) Most of my people navigate the things of this world so much better than I do. Dang! They know how to do stuff! But for them, I'm a keeper of their unlived dreams, an ear tuned to their deeper selves, and an inspiration to trust their own process. I'm on their people list too.
2. Our people aren't just there to fill in the blanks, but as models for us. Because of the earthy people in my life, I have acquired some skills with which I astound them from time to time. Maridel meets Turbo Tax! Maridel resolved her printer problem all by herself! Maridel stayed calm when her kitchen sprung a leak! If we allow it, our people can take the meager abilities we have in their areas of expertise and give them a bit o' muscle (which comes in handy when they don't answer their phones).
3. The reciprocal process of having people and being people -- of offering, receiving and co-learning -- is an alchemical one. Merriam, the Word-Webster, defines alchemy as "an inexplicable and mysterious transmuting." Yes, exactly. Over time and throughout life's unpredictable ride, we transmute each other -- that is to say, we each become more whole for having been each other's people.
4. Because life is impermanent, our people come and go. Yet they live on in us and we in them, unbounded by face-time or Facebook, or facing the inevitable alterations of human bonds. Even when that quiet, cheerful or kick-butt voice no longer fills the airwaves of our lives, it still speaks from within, reminding us that it is our people who shape and share our destiny.
Are "People who need people the luckiest people in the world," as the celebrated song proclaims? Or is it "Blessed are those who have people" -- and know that having and being are part of the same story?
'Til we cross paths again,
Maridel |
My friend and author Michelle Gamble-Risley is one of my people. (She's my marketer extraordinaire!)And I'm proud to announce that she has set the date for the first official Second Bloom workshop being hosted by the Rancho Cordova Chamber of Commerce.
March 27, 2009 - 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.
Chamber of Commerce
2729 Prospect Park Drive,
American River Room
Rancho Cordova, CA
Recession-Buster Special
$19.95 - Member Rate
$29.95 - Non-Member Rate
www.ranchocordova.org
Online registration has opened on the Chamber's website. Please sign up by clicking here. If you have any questions on the workshop, please send an e-mail to info@second-bloom.com.
Invite all of your girlfriends to join us and learn together how to reinvent your lives! We're also offering a special recession-buster price to open the workshop to as many women as possible. We know and understand that times are tight. We want to help you (especially now when many women need it the most) by offering these amazing rates for this one-time only. We hope you will join us! |
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I'd Love to be One of Your People!
If you have a writing project or idea, let's sit down together over a cup of coffee (tea or cocoa) and discuss it. Regardless of the size of the project (web profile, website content, newsletter, blog or book) or where you are in the process, I'd be happy to give you my thoughts and see how I can help. It's free! Please feel free to contact me at Maridel@evolvingjourney.com. | |
