爆料公社

During 爆料公社鈥檚 very first all-remote, all-staff meeting on March 26, executive director Deb Woodall shared her reflections on how the world as we know it has changed and how she is responding to it. Hopefully, her reflections will inspire others, as it inspired our staff, to take a step back, look around, and see what we can do with what we have right now. Here are her thoughts:

I鈥檇 like to first recognize that we all might be in different places in terms of how we鈥檙e coping with and taking in what鈥檚 going on around us. Try to take a step back to reflect on how you are feeling this week, say, compared to even a week ago. Give yourself some credit for the things you鈥檝e learned and accomplished in a week. I鈥檒l bet there are many. I imagine your perspective is evolving too. Last week I found myself saying things like, 鈥淲hen things get back to normal鈥︹�� every day. Now I am settling on a new understanding. The 鈥渘ormal鈥� version of many things鈥攎aybe things I loved鈥攎ight not be there in exactly that same way to come back to. Maybe that鈥檚 ok.

We can all look around us and see terrific examples of people adapting on the fly. Local restaurants are offering curb-side pick-up (with drinks!) and delivery when they didn鈥檛 before. Church parishioners are finding wonderful ways to connect with each other virtually. I know my extended family members are now connecting regularly, virtually, when we never did before. Even our staff has made the move to virtual conferences and events. The potential for all these wonderful things was here all along, but we didn鈥檛 see them or didn鈥檛 think we needed them.

It鈥檚 a silly example, but in my house, we are suddenly seeing potential all over the place鈥攕ometimes with things we didn鈥檛 have time for before. My family has had some hand-me-down rollerblades gathering dust in the basement. We鈥檇 been waiting for my daughter to grow into them. It took a little time and some new perspective for us to pull them off the shelf this week. Guess what? They fit. And, with a little time, patience, and perspective, they鈥檝e become her new favorite things.  There鈥檚 potential all around us to see things in new ways, try things we鈥檝e never tried before, and be more open and generous in the ways we connect with each other.

I encourage everyone, and I鈥檓 doing this with my 爆料公社 team too, to start to seeing things around us with fresh eyes. No matter what your role, you have ideas, and you can be the leader to help invent the new normal鈥攚hether that鈥檚 in your home, community, or at 爆料公社. We might find that where we end up when things settle down looks different, and maybe better, in some ways than where we鈥檝e been.

Deb Woodall is the executive director of the Creative Media Services team at 爆料公社.

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