Love in Everything We Do: it was there all along
In her blog post, Laura opens up about how Kirsty and Jon’s vision initially threw her for a loop. After spending over 20 years in healthcare communications, she was taken aback by the idea of bringing something as personal as love into the professional world. It just didn’t seem to fit. But as she let their idea sink in, Laura began to realize it wasn’t as far-fetched as she first thought. Here, she shares how embracing that idea can actually lead to more meaningful and compassionate work.
“Wasn’t love a bit, well, personal? Or at least, not particularly worky?? How would I reconcile it with the professional?”
When Kirsty and Jon first shared their vision with me, I don’t mind saying I felt a bit uneasy. I mean, it was so different! So out there! In the 24 odd years I’d been working for and with healthcare comms agencies, I’d never seen anything quite like it. Love hadn’t been mentioned by anyone! Wasn’t love a bit, well, personal? Or at least, not particularly worky?? How would I reconcile it with the professional?
I listened to their rationale and let it percolate. And over time, it dawned on me. This vision wasn’t actually as ‘out there’ as it had first appeared to me. I thought back to all the times I’ve done great work, for clients I’ve really admired. There was a sense of ‘the personal’ to all of it. Whether that was the extra email/call I’d made to a patient without being asked just to check they were OK after a difficult interview, to the Teams meeting where the client and I decided we could cover the key actions in 10 minutes, leaving 20 to chat about our summer holiday plans and what the hell we’d do with the kids the rest of the time. The difficult conversation I’d had to have when my work had fallen short of the expected mark. The lovely conversation I’d had when my work had exceeded expectations, that left me on a high all day.
I might not love everything I do in a day. Do you? There are always tasks and projects that leave me a little drained, just as there are when I’m wearing my other ‘hats’ of wife, mother, sister, mate. But that’s love, isn’t it? The give, and the take. The highs, the lows, and most of the time, the contented equilibrium. The exciting, the boring and the hilarious. But through it all – the red thread of mutual respect, of compassion, of humanity. Of love.