It has been a random busy month and not just with work.
I have a nephew! I am a first time Aunt so I am super excited, plus I live with my sister so I get to see the little peanut every day. He doesn't talk and sleeps a lot so we're getting along splendidly so far :-) He has made me think about something. Hopefully it won't take me too long to get to the point, often it does...
I have met hundreds of mothers (my sister now included in this) who just amaze me... They are Mama bears immediately. Would do anything, say anything, sacrifice anything for their child. And it is so sudden. I have seen something kind of interesting happen very quickly in my little house... It's all about the baby. We are quiet more often. We cleaned the house top to bottom. I vacuumed. Wow!
There one phrase that keeps going in and out of my head lately is: "It's not about you". That is a common phrase in my world... meaning that we have to put our selfishness aside, take ourselves out of a situation and leave who really matters.
So sitting at the library on Monday I was watching teachers interact with the children playing in the room. The teachers were great, they really let the kids play with the toys how they wanted, the only big rule was to clean up after themselves. They talked to the kids, but really, they listened. Then later on that afternoon I found myself talking about programming, and I said, if I was planning a program, I would first see what has worked before and then see what the people want. It felt like a cop out answer to a question that would need a detailed response, but I am sticking to it. And then it dawned on me: "it's not about us."
We provide a service to people. We provide guidance. When it comes down to it, it's all about customer service. It doesn't matter how we feel about a book/movie/toy we have in the collection, the people may want it. It doesn't really matter if we like how a person is speaking to us, we still help them. At the end of the day... it has little to do with us. But it does...
