More People Than I Can Thank...But I Can Try

 

I had a dream last night that Tim Winfrey and I were in an apartment association meeting in Richmond, VA. We were no longer active in the business, they didn’t expect to see us, and on reflection I imagine that they surely didn’t expect to see Tim because he has been in the Presence of Christ for a few years! Nevertheless they welcomed us and the leader of the meeting asked us to come up front and say a few words.

 

As Tim walked to the front and began speaking I jotted down a few notes on some scrap paper to guide me when my time came to speak.

 

When I started in the business, management was pretty much white, white from the community managers to upper executives, at least in the Baltimore – Washington area. I don’t recall seeing any people of color at industry meetings of executives. That has changed, to what degree I’m uncertain, but it has thankfully changed.

 

Also, when I began my career there were few women in upper management. Women were the community managers and many of them lived on-site, but few women managed portfolios. That has most certainly and thankfully changed.

 

Some things have probably not changed for the better, such as the institutionalization of the business, but this is true of business in general. Metrics have their place, but when they eliminate relationships and ethics and morality then we are well on the road to becoming zombies – but again, this is the world we live in; if we can call this “life.”

 

As I awoke from the dream I thought of dear Tim. Vickie and I had just been talking about Tim, about all the years we had known him. She was reminiscing about an industry event we attended in the early 1990s and about how much fun Tim had been that evening. Then, of course, I thought of his wife Shelly. Toward the end of my career, Tim, Shelly, and I worked together.

 

Then I thought of Letisa, and Ana, and Diane, and Debby, and Alethea, and Lucy and Tony, and Hilda, and Jim, and Robert, and Gloria, and Earl, and Joanne…and the faces and names came flooding into my heart, mind and soul. Well, actually, they didn’t flood into me because they were already in me. O how I thought of the joy and kindness Vickie and I have both experienced from these wonderful women and men over the years.

 

Of course you realize there is always a danger in naming names, for you are certain to leave someone out…but I’m not really leaving anyone out of my heart, I can just only write so many names at one time, names that span decades and joys and challenges and bright days and dark days and days of “getting it right” and days of “getting it O so wrong.” Days of providing (I hope) a good example, and then days I’d rather forget when I was a total ass, a complete and total ass.

 

I should do better at thanking people, at touching base with those still with us and thanking them - I won’t be here forever. I want them to know that they’ve made a difference in my life, a beautiful difference. They’ve been God’s gifts to Vickie and me, God’s gifts…ain’t that something?

 

Can you ever thank someone too much? Or tell them you love them too much?

 

What about you? Who are the people in your life you are thankful for?

Have you told them lately?