June 26th, 2025

​The agency I work for at the state is re-organizing.

Or re-aligning.

Or re-structuring.

I'm not entirely sure which "re" it is but anytime you get to incorporating "re" in business or life it usually means some version of out with the old and in with the new. Which isn't always a bad thing.

I guess the key is that someone in charge of the "re" knows precisely what they want to do with the new that couldn't be done with the old, otherwise you run the risk that re-structuring will lead to structures every bit as shaky as the old one.

Maybe even more shaky.

But before I make that the point of this article I will move on.

Yesterday the team I work with got the official word on what this restructuring will look like in our world. In short, it means the office we all worked in no longer exists - it's being absorbed by other offices - newly formed ones and old ones alike. It also means that some of us will continue to work directly together and other of us will work for new people and with new teams.

All of which kind of sucks.

In ten years one grows to take some pride in the office they work for. And in ten years, one grows to appreciate and adore the people they work with, especially when our shared work is centered on helping others find and keep emotional and physical and mental wellness in their lives.

There were sad exchanges yesterday. Sad that an office can just disappear with the stroke of a pen. Sad that what we've all been able to do with one another in collaboration now feels in danger of being replaced with silos and division. Sad that our impact across the state feels largely unseen in this mad dash for efficiency. Because we all know that the way we work together changes people's lives far more than the way lines connect or flow on an org chart ever will.

But maybe that's what I need to be reminded of. Maybe it's something many of us can be reminded of.

People's names and titles and offices don't change people's lives - the way we enter into those lives does. And the way we enter into those lives can leave an impact that survives and thrives well beyond any re-organization.

Years from now, and likely even mere months from now, people will not remember the name of our old office, but they will continue to live lives made healthier by it.

When we receive a gift from someone, a gift that touches our souls, we don't care where the gift came from. We often treasure most what the gift means to us, how it stirs us, and the well meaning found in the giver of the gift.

That is the moral I suppose, one that isn't ever meant to be re-structured but only held close, an unshakeable truth, that we have gifts within us always ready to pour out. And life indeed does at times make them more difficult to pour out - to share - but difficulties in life are often meant to remind us that difficult is almost always only a bump.

Difficult is rarely the end.

Unless we choose it to be.....