I was out of town for several weeks, attending a conference, visiting colleagues, gathering up energy from various sources. It was a wonderful experience, but at some point it was time to go home.
Arriving back on the red eye the other day, tired and jet lagged, I had to give a talk within hours of my plane landing at JFK. Which was wonderfully exhilarating but perhaps a little too heroic. 🙂
Yet the energy of reuniting with my team, these students and these research scientists, kept me going. It was a delight just to see all the wonderful work they had done, and to share with them my adventures and the great conversations I’d had along my journey.
These last three days back home have been a complete whirlwind of forward motion. There is something about going away for a while, and then coming back again, that creates its own sort of energy.
Tendrils of that energy gather and swirl and coalesce about us, into a spinning vortex of creative power, as though it is the most natural thing in the world. At such times I remember all over again why I love this place, and this work, and these people.