Work, Perspective, Humor and Gifts from the Universe...

It has only been 3 days since the close of the most recent conference. My experiences as the conference planner are completely different from anyone else's--all the participants and registrants come to experience connection and get reinvigorated in their chosen profession while for me, 12-14-hour days of on-site work, following weeks of long days of organization and details, can be incredibly draining. For me it is not a chosen profession, it is a job that allows me to feed my kids, stay afloat as a single mom, and also work that makes it challenging for me to balance my other chosen work--my writing. Still, there is a sense of accomplishment when I get back in the office and am able to close files, wrap up issues and toss papers into the recycling. I am reconnecting with my kids and friends who haven't seen much of me during those long days of trouble-shooting. Since my support-team is elsewhere, being at conferences actually can isolate me from those people with whom I feel connected. I'm definitely a lone fish swimming in a different pond.

Add to that the fact that what feedback and interaction I do get at conference (and before and after) is generally dealing with problems, complaints, unhappy people and challenges. The "thank yous" are few and far between and the work I do with contracts and details and AV and such is generally not what people think of when they think of attending a conference. The fact that my work goes un-noticed is probably a good thing. What people remember from a conference is the woo woo feel-good of the speakers and their "like-minded" colleagues. No one else needs to know how the speakers actually got there or the work behind getting those continuing education credits. If things run smoothly, no one has to think about it; if there is a glitch, I will likely be the first one to hear about it.

So, it's over for a couple months until we head to Denmark. I'm trying to catch up with my kids and enjoy some grand laughs and visits with friends. It is good to tell stories and converse and find out what has been going on in the outside world. It helps to get things back into perspective. I am a person who likes to leave work at work and conference time makes that impossible. Meanwhile, there are so many fabulous gifts from the universe to enjoy--people, pleasures, possibilities...it's time to recycle the "old" experience with the conference paper and try to get re-grounded in what really matters.