Es ist nie zu spät
I lived in Thale, in the Härz mountains, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, for about one year back in 1996. It was an incredible educational experience that helped shape my character a fair bit, although, back then, I didn’t realise about it. I was having a blast. I even learned German, as I originally wanted to live there for a good while. Alas, life had other plans for yours truly, so after that fantastic year, I moved to The Netherlands and in early January 1997 I started working at IBM. Es ist nie zu spät.
It is never too late. That’s one of my favourite short German sentences, if anything, because when you least expect it, BOOM!, it happens. Last week, I had exactly that! You may have noticed how I’ve been relatively quiet over here in the last few days. My head has been spinning around with what I think may well be my next life / work adventure. I’m pretty excited about the prospects. And all of that because of multiple conversations I’ve had these past few days with old friends I used to work with nearly 30 years ago and new friends I’ve met just a few weeks back. Now, that’s the power of social networking tools and social media, in general: building, nurturing and sustaining old AND new human connections. No LLMs involved. Just you and your innate ability to relate to others, one conversation at a time, on a topic you’re both passionate about. Priceless.
I bet you’re curious about what that next endeavour may well be all about, right? Well, you’ll have to wait, since I haven’t even mentioned the one I’ve been currently working on for the last 3 years. I’ll be blogging about it shortly though, don’t worry, but I can tell you both initiatives are connected. Or, better said, they are very well interconnected. It’s all about building purposeful community. The thing that’s interesting, and that’s very much connected to that short German sentence I mentioned above, is that it took me about a decade to bring into fruition what I’m currently working on and somehow I feel this next work / life adventure may not need to wait for that long. Es ist nie zu spät, aber wir müssen uns beeilen!
They say patience rewards those who can wait and persevere. This time around though, I won’t be waiting for that long to go by before I decide to act on it, but will start working towards it right away. Timing is everything. So what I am doing, writing these few words in this blog post, is eventually holding myself accountable. Put it down somewhere, on paper, I mustn’t wait for too long before diving deeper into that new initiative that’s been spinning around in my head after several conversations held this year confirming the timing might be just right!
I know you’re all going to think this is a rather silly post, perhaps a tad too personal with very little substance. After all, who cares, right? Well, I tell you what, I do. It’s my blog, remember? My extended brain you can take a peek into at your own leisure and enjoy the ride. My living CV in which I have just told you, for instance, how, where and for whom I started working in IT nearly 30 years ago. The languages I speak, the current piece of work I’m heavily and passionately involved with and what connects what I’m currently working on and what I’ll be getting involved with soon enough.
See? With these few words I’m putting together in this post I want to hold myself accountable about what’s next. Eventually, start connecting the dots on the two initiatives (one, present, the other, in the new-future) I’m getting more and more heavily involved with from here onwards, make it count, without waiting for too long before jumping into the action. There is a connection between the two initiatives and perhaps more importantly there is a single keyword that connects both of them more than I could have ever anticipated, or expected, that I’d want to leave you with for a good tease:
Sanctuary.
(Want to know more? Hang in there, please! Coming up shortly!)
