Today I had a meeting with a Bay Area videographer named Terry Lamb. The two of us had recently met at a business group I just joined, a group whose goal is to get its members to know others from various professions, establish a sense of trust, and then work as a networking group, helping other members in the group receive referrals for their services.
I must say, despite my interest, I was also a bit wary of joining the group for a number of reasons. For one, I had felt extremely busy over the last several months with the projects I’d already committed to undertaking and the idea of attending a weekly meeting as well as having one on ones with other members in the group felt like it might just put me over the edge. Furthermore, what would I do if I started to receive a flood of referral for my architectural design and creativity consulting services? I was more interested in completing what I had already started.
And yet as one who has a view of the world around him as dynamic, interdependent, and profoundly mysterious, the synchronicities pointing me towards the group were undeniable. In the same week that a friend in the group had invited me as his guest, I coincidentally and without previous coordination, received an invitation from the same referral group in the mail. Plus, when I arrived shortly after dawn a month ago, I found myself seated at a long table surrounded by a friendly face with a view of one of my favorite natural features in the entire world, The Golden Gate. Referrals or not, I am unwilling to turn my back on the power of the Golden Gate.
The external purpose of my meeting with Terry was to better understand how we could refer business to one another. But as Terry and I delved into a series of engaging topics such as politics and Global Warming, the powers and limits of digital communications, the Vietnam War, world music, and, of course, the nature of creativity, and as I felt the joy and appreciation of watching a stranger morph into a new friend, I was struck, once again, that behind each and every one of us is the unending song of creativity played through the instrument of our individual lives.
Stringing together our moments on this planet is a rare and precious narrative, a narrative that only ourselves as individuals and ourselves alone will have the full opportunity to experience. In this light, and despite the busyness and seemingly over extended nature of life in the Information Age, it is important to take time to share our own narrative and listen to the narratives of others.
On the surface, I may be the newest member in a long standing business referral group. On a deeper level I’ve traveled a little bit deeper into the felt sense of the interdependent web of life. I am reminded once again that it is important that we take time out to connect with others, to understand a bit of their narratives and let those narratives resonate with our own. In such moments of connection, a bit of respite and creative insight can be found.
And would I recommend Terry? In a heartbeat. You can get to know him, too, at his Videosyncracy website.