It happens to every writer…a block, a blank page, not a damn thing to say. All the while feeling you have too much to say. Redefining your voice is inevitable at some point, no one stays the same so why should their voice.
It’s March, a month that has always proven pivotal to me. Today on the 1st it’s pouring out, with thunder and lightning, warmer temps and my garden is showing signs of life and reemergence. I was gifted a lovely bunch of tulip bulbs in a glass vase that is just now starting to bloom. It’s residing on my mantle but destined for the back garden once those blooms have died back. I’ll be able to enjoy them over and over in Springs to come.
I’m just coming off the high of hosting the annual Car Hag’s Brunch and feeling a bit…something. Dated perhaps or less energized and I’m wondering am I suffering a crisis of relevance? Relevance: a quality or state of being closely connected or appropriate. To leave an ordinary legacy must relevance be an overarching quality? Or will just bits and starts be enough.
To watch these people connect through their listening skills, the way they make space for each other, the camaraderie, the lack of competition, the advice, the lack of judgement, gives me pause that they will all be fine. They live in a male dominated industry, that I worry may never change, but these women are making their way from around my table to the head of the table in their daily interactions and I could just burst with the pride I feel for them. My only job on this day is to provide a safe and comfortable space where your shoulders drop from around your ears, the food is good and the wine is plenty. The rest is up to them.
I don’t say much throughout the day, I enjoy watching them interact. I’ve been called the mother ship and that bit of relevance delights me. As for true relevance, the bits and starts will have to do for now. The reassuring phone calls and dealer visits that have become a bit more scholastic than industry standard are more my forte. I’ll be blessed to leave an entire program behind when I retire but there is nothing that says it will endure if someone’s not fighting for it or if it becomes irrelevant.
Going forward I’m hoping we will be joined by even more Hags, only those that are customer facing or dealer facing, who can speak and, more importantly, listen from a base of true understanding of this crazy car business. My hope is to need a bigger table…
As for leaving an ordinary legacy, I’m concentrating on the little things, the ordinary moments in time that I’ve been capturing every day through my Instagram musings. People seem to respond so much more to those than anything lofty I’ve tried to conjure up. Just the words “conjure up” seem inauthentic and contrived for purposes other than my real story.
So it’s back to living my life the way I want my story told and documenting that story through thoughtful words and images. And even more relevant, sharing other’s stories and heritage morsels and life with an old dog. “Like” or don’t “like” follow or don’t follow but know that if you wind up here it will be real, the tiniest bit relevant and perhaps something you can use yourself. Crisis averted…