The Next

In July of last year, I left BrightStep Partners and began a journey into the Next, which I honestly didn’t know where would lead me.  It was, looking back, one of the best things I’ve ever done for myself because it allowed me to understand what it truly means to live a life of faith.  Faith that tomorrow will bring a new change, opportunity, or challenge that I will have the capacity and resilience to undertake.  Faith that there is something greater than myself guiding me, holding me, loving and healing me as I walk.  It was also terrifying, and, honestly, there were some very dark moments along the path.

2016 was for me a year of, it felt, never-ending loss – personal, professional, death, family, and to add insult to it all, the election of Trump.  I had many components of my world systematically stripped away until that which remained was only the pillar of faith that I’ve been called upon to serve and that drove me to become ordained in 2015.  Along the way, I learned some valuable lessons:

• I am surrounded by one of the most amazing communities of people anyone could ever ask for. I am deeply grateful to many, many people for hearing me, supporting me, making me laugh, and being a light in the shadows when I needed it.
• There is no shame, and in fact, a great deal of love, in asking for help.
• However much I thought I had saved to sustain me for a half-year, double in the future. Truly taking a step back, and having the patience and fortitude to find the next right fit, means having an enduring means to live for a calendar year or more without steady income. Let that be a finance lesson to us all.

It’s easy to allow the good times to dull our senses to the greater world around us.  In fact, this past year has been tremendously difficult for more people than less, both in my immediate and anecdotal circles.  It’s even easier to let the bad times cause isolation and fear.  Two people connected to my immediate circles killed themselves after Election Day – I learn that this has not been an uncommon phenomenon after this November and into the holidays.  In the coming times, may we all reach our hands out to just one more person in peace, understanding, and compassion.

On January 16, I’m joining an amazing team of colleagues as co-workers at Salesforce.org – my new title will be Partner Training and Enablement Manager.  And, I have so many to thank as part of the journey to this moment, I doubt I’d do any justice by trying to list them all.  Instead I will promise, in my new role, to be as of best service I possibly can be to you and this community that has given me so much through the years.

In immense gratitude, and with blessings for us all in this new calendar year.