Unexpected Beauty

Whenever I want blog content inspiration, I check out Patricia Digh’s 37 days blog. She references a great clip on YouTube taken on the Paris metro by Naturally 7 group. She is always so eloquent and asks what do we do when beauty springs up in unexpectant places? Such a great question to ask on this beautiful sunny Monday morning.

I’m reminded of a time when I conducted training in the middle of winter for this large company based in a small town in Indiana. They didn’t even have a Starbucks or Kinko’s so my tolerance ran low. I was obviously out of my element for many more reasons as I had to quickly adjust my language, appearance, habits, etc. Taking it down about 10 years as I watched those around me and became convinced I had just walked into a time warp.

The training went okay and luckily sales skills are concepts everyone can relate to and understand. However, there was one older woman, we’ll call her Madge,  in the group who was a lot slower than the rest. She asked irrelevant questions, didn’t seem to listen too much and clearly was stuck in her old comfort habits. Madge was very nice but could not keep up with the rest of the group- let alone demonstrate revenue-generating potential.

That day when the training ended, we were hit with a huge snowstorm and everyone was warned to quickly return home because the forecast showed it getting worst. We ran to the parking lot to get our cars and my giant rented SUV which looked like a massive tractor was sitting in the lot completely covered in snow. Okay, I’m an urban California girl who maybe sees snow once every few years when someone has the patience to watch me do the bunny slopes in Tahoe. I don’t even know what gear to switch into when I’m in a car surrounded by snow. I panicked but had to keep my “I’m in control because I’m the trainer and communications expert” persona going. 

Suddenly, there’s Madge dressed in her full snow suit and boots holding a large snow shovel. She briskly walked through the parking lot flagging cars down, shoveling snow off car windows and redirecting traffic out of the parking lot. Their safety was her priority and she made sure to take care of everyone in the lot before getting in her car.

Although Madge may have shown weakness in a classroom training session, she became the super hero of the parking lot that day. That was beauty that sprung up for me in an unexpected way.