How Can You Miss People You Never See?

Since November I've been working remotely rather than in the room with my team. And I've missed them. I've missed happy hours and lunches and dinners and general quiet moments with them, and it's true that it does bother me from time to time. I can't wait until I'm cleared to travel so that I can go back and get some face time, because I really love my team.

What's really amazing is that since last Thursday I have been out due to major surgery. I'd like to blow it off and not call it major surgery, but the bill was $73,000 and I was in the hospital and I'm not allowed to unload the freaking dishwasher, so I'm gonna go with major surgery. I haven't spoken to my team since Wednesday. And I miss them terribly. They've e-mailed me and things and that's been lovely, but I miss their voices. It's almost to the point where I'd call in to a meeting just to hear them...except that I'd have to get up at 6 a.m., and boredom has me wandering aimlessly around my house until 2 a.m., so that would be a stretch. Also, anticipating the urge to return to work early, I deleted all the meetings off my calendar, because in years of meditating I have accumulated Self Knowledge.

Anyway. I used to work with a remote team all the time at a previous job, and that experience gave me a healthy contempt for people who say you can't have a relationship with someone unless you can look them in their beady little eyes and assess their motivation or whatever. Maybe I'm just crappy at performing those in-person assessments and so I'm less handicapped by being remote. But I think it's far more likely that humans will find ways to interact and build relationships because we're social animals and that's just what we do, as long as we give ourselves the chance to adapt. I've long since taken this adaptability for granted, but today I'm really grateful for it and for the richness it's brought to my life and my daily experience.

I'm also grateful for the ability to rent movies from my Tivo and buy books from my phone. Because seriously? I've never been so bored in all my life. Not even in high school. Shifter, tell your beautiful bride that I am looking back on that period she was on bed rest and retroactively worshiping her, because I have been trapped in my apartment complex for a total of three days and I am going batshit crazy.