Let it snow.....

I looked outside a little while ago and it was snowing.....again..... I don't really mind snow, I mind the cold that surrounds it. As I was watching the snowflakes - and there a plenty of them - I got to thinking about a call I had last night around 10p.m.

I have been trying to bolster my consulting business in Atlanta in order to have more opportunity to go down there and visit my aging parents and the rest of my family. I also know Atlanta to be a vibrant business community and would love to enjoy that vitality as I do the energy that I've found in Indiana. At any rate, at 10 o'clock the phone rang and it was a woman with whom I was put in touch by my sister-in-law. I had contacted her earlier in the day, but didn't really expect to hear back from her until today. She was on her way home from a meeting and was full of energy and ideas.

I was struck with the generosity of her call. She is the Vice President of an HR company just outside of Atlanta and at 10p.m. she's leaving her last meeting of the day and returns my call. She was apologetic about the hour and I was thinking about how thankful I am that she would take time out - her personal time, at that - to invest in helping to solve some of my problems. What a generous gesture at any hour!

And, like the snowflakes, ideas began to flow from her. I was writing as quickly as I could and it wasn't quickly enough. She asked me about my company and what I do and, after listening, she took off with a variety of people that I needed to contact, things that would help me open various doors and people to whom I needed an introduction.

It was a lesson for me. I consider myself a good friend and a helpful individual. But there are times when follow-through is not my strong point. If you don't follow through for people that are close to you, then you won't follow through with people that you'd like to help, but don't really know that well. I hope that this moment in my life will help me to do more, to follow through more often, to be as generous as this stranger, whom I haven't even met in person yet, has been to me. And, like the snowflakes, that generosity falls in plentiful amounts and feeds me in so many ways. It has never failed to pay back in joy, gratitude and attitude. I need to let more snowflakes fall, participate and help those whom I can. You never know what the snow has contributed to help the blossoms of Spring!