Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind than the one where they sprang up. —Oliver Wendell Holmes

This has been an interesting week in terms of collaborating, from business to personal there have been many heads together sharing ideas, enlightening one another or just plain brain storming. I found myself in “meetings” of all kinds that proved very satisfying. As you know that isn’t often the case.

It seems that most misunderstandings start from lone assumptions, yeah yeah I know you’re shocked. You’d be surprised at how long someone can carry an assumption around before they consider its validity.  Such was the case between two mothers who, up until just recently, seemed to make their blended families work just fine. You know the old adage about assuming.  Each believed the other was conspiring against them until one had the courage to call the other and they sat down to join forces and try to understand where things ran amuck.  There was a culprit; it turned out it was neither of them.

Sometimes someone’s burning question becomes a thought provoking discussion.  A Facebook friend had just been informed that one of their former clients had passed. The question, should they delete that person from their phone?  All manner of opinion sprung from that question, all manner of spiritual beliefs and pragmatism showed up in the comment section of the post.  I don’t know what they decided but there was certainly enough food for thought.

Meals and drinks shared with friends were end to end this week.  I was a bit amused at three different women sharing lunch talking about a TV show we had all seen.  I mean we are three distinctly different women, yet there was that one strand, aside from the fact that we were colleagues, that ran through us. Even tiny moments like that blow me away.

Erma Bombeck once said, “It takes a lot of courage to show your dreams to someone else”.  I’ve had the distinct honor and pleasure to be part of a friend’s burgeoning new venture and she has been an amazing supporter of Ordinary Legacy. This week each of us has played devil’s advocate, creative genius, or soothsayer to the other. The results are always enlightening, encouraging and creative, this week was no exception.

The point is no one can come into their own without others.  I say this as the daughter of a man who considered himself a loner and may have passed some of those genetics along.  I can certainly be social but I have spent much time on my own and tend to ruminate on things myself.  I am learning that “no one can whistle a symphony” as someone once said.  I started to really understand this just a few years ago, but it actually came home when a dear friend sent me a TED talk by Boyd Varty.  It was about the African concept of Ubuntu: I am because of you.

I hope you’ll be more aware of the collaborative moments in your life and know like you know they make you what you are, good, bad or indifferent.