Work and Play

This weekend I went to a work conference. It's usually the one time in the entire year that all seventeen of us, partners and staff (plus a few associates), get together to share thoughts. I am very lucky to be working with a bunch of interesting, fun and intelligent people. Long may it last..!

We were treated to a lot of super interesting and thought enhancing presentations by the partners and associates, ranging from Rules for the Conduct of Life (an 18th century guide for the Freemen of City of London) to more practical topics such as exploring what kind of a CRM system we should adopt as we grow as a business. But I had one particular favourite presentation by one of our associates. It was an exploration of who we are as individuals using Lego blocks. The idea was to build something that represents how we see ourselves or what makes us who we are. It's fascinating what we all came up with having only ten minutes to construct ourselves! 

I found that finnishness is a really large part of my identity (no surprises there), so my core was built of blue and white blocks. These blocks were sandwiched between two different green blocks. The bottom one was light green and the top one was dark green. They represented the two isles that ground me - Ireland through being Irish-in-law, and Great Britain, which has given me a home, and where I feel free to be who I am without anyone questioning it or asking me to explain my choices. From the top green 'Britain block' went out a red shoot (passion?) which showed my need to be removed from my core state every once in a while, allowed by the fact that I live in the UK, from where there is easy access everywhere in the world. At the end of the shoot I put a little cross which represented a compass. That leads to what the title of my blog is too: my itchy feet. If it weren't for these grounding blocks of my life I would probably follow that red shoot and move about the world, quenching the thirst of learning about all the weird and wonderful things that this planet of ours offers. As it is I can only do that in small portions, and money (or lack if it) means that I haven't gone as far as I would have maybe liked. Then again, I wonder if this is in fact true. Maybe it's just a convenient excuse. Knowing myself, I have a tendency to do things I want to do regardless of any perceived obstacles. So perhaps it's good that I haven't gone and fulfilled these dreams of eternal travel - after all we all need something or another to look forward to in our lives, and of course, sometimes the important thing about the dream is not the final destination but rather the pursuit...