Reflections Along the Way

This week ran me over.

The pace--way beyond my capacity to manage.

Appointment after appointment. Opportunity piled on top of opportunity, surrounded by pressing want and no little desperation.

I can't write. I can't think. All I can do is keep moving, but I'm wondering at this late hour if any movement is worthwhile.

So much for me.

The day just past has been fairly amazing.

Impressions. Reflections of things and people and situations I've observed, taken in and engaged.

My day began very early. I delivered a speech to about 100 leaders of a major Dallas corporation whose business is to support and supply the construction industry here and across the South.

After our time was over, a man approached to ask if we could supply him drivers for his trucks, welders and pipefitters for another part of his business. The jobs come with training, benefits and many, many hours weekly.

We're already working on it.
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At noon I spoke to about 100 medical students from UT Southwestern Medical Center. The group had organized itself over concerns to see justice and fairness brought to health care delivery, as well as to other sectors of our national life.

For about an hour we talked to one another. I left feeling as if I had been with a group of amazingly bright, young leaders who could change the world.
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Driving through downtown Dallas, I noticed three women seated outside a Starbucks Coffee store at a table on the sidewalk. Two of the three were in the direct, glaring sun. The temperature stood at about 101. Two of the three were smoking. The city's ban on smoking in all restaurants had driven them outside into the scorching heat.
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At mid-afternoon I met with several staff leaders (whose job is employment training and readiness) and representatives from a major national corporation headquartered in Dallas. We discussed how to employ our trainees to meet their business needs. The meeting was positive. We left with a real sense of hope.

During the meeting, a young man who had been working in our community room in another part of our neighborhood technology center "interrupted" us to remind me to call him if the truck driving jobs materialized. I had mentioned the possibility to him and others prior to our meeting.

He apologized for disturbing me and the meeting, but he was so eager to work.

He was from New Orleans.
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Strategic planning.

New funding possibilities for one or more of our current housing projects.

Expanding medical services.

Growing numbers of Katrina evacuees finding us as they get settled in Dallas.

The pace can be out of control.

I need some rest. Next week it will arrive.