The Fragility of Stability
I have a terrific client who is located in Sydney, Australia. It has been fascinating, and incredibly positive, to learn more about their culture, their nonprofit professional world, and just the diverse and unique people I really love to work with. Take away the time change, and some late-night calls, and it would be near perfect.
This last week, I had a series of calls with them. I try to start every call, regardless of whom I am speaking with, by asking how they’re doing. Is everyone OK? Is everybody healthy? In this case, I had read a couple of stories about the pandemic in Sydney but really got a firsthand account of how life has changed recently.
Australia has managed Covid, prior to a couple of weeks ago, in a pretty spectacular way. There certainly have been cases, but so much fewer than here in the United States. But over the past several weeks, the Delta variant has eaten into their success.
The individuals who I work with, almost all the way through the pandemic, have been talking about going into their offices, going out to dinner, and other regular activities. There might have been a pullback or two from basic life, but inside Australia, they’ve managed pretty well.
Not anymore.
Recently, they moved into a complete shutdown ---really shouldn’t leave your house. You’re not allowed to be more than 5 km away unless you have a medical or specific need. All of the calls I’m having are now with people in their own homes. It reminds me of where we were in the United States several times over the last 18 months.
There’s a fragility of stability. Just when you think everything is going a certain way, there’s a left turn. And most of the time it happens without a blinker to give you a warning. There’s an old adage about what to do with lemons. You make lemonade. There’s a lot of basic truth in that because when stability changes, it’s more about how you deal with things than what actually happened. And the crazy thing is you get to control most of the reaction.
While my clients can’t control the lockdown, I was impressed and appreciative that they have such a positive attitude. They all seem to be making, and drinking, that lemonade from the lemons of Covid.
