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Welcome back to The Bend!
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The Bend follows a simple rhythm each week. The Eddy Line opens with a one-line thought or
observation, something short enough to remember but worth thinking
about. What the Current Pulled Toward dives a
little deeper into where the previous week’s energy went, whether that’s
a project, a partnership, or a personal lesson learned. Signal Fire highlights a person, place, or initiative
that deserves some attention. From the
Field, shares a small anecdote about the broader outdoor
recreation economy from Oxbow’s non-profit arm, the VA
MTNS Outdoor Collective. And One Thought Worth
Sitting With closes things out with a brief reflection or quote
that will hopefully help guide you through whatever you may be dealing
with.
It’s part journal, part field note, and hopefully
something that makes you pause for a moment before diving back into the
current.
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“People may
not remember exactly what you did,
but they’ll remember how they felt when
they were with you.”
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What the Current Pulled Toward
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This week the current pulled toward
belonging.
This past
weekend I attended a memorial service for the father of a good friend of
mine. I didn’t know him particularly well. We
met a couple times but certainly not enough for me to tell you much
about his life, his career, or his accomplishments.
What I learned about him came from the people who
stood up to speak. One by one, folks shared
stories. Some were funny. Some were touching. Most were a little bit of
both.
The details varied but the theme
was remarkably consistent. Folks talked about
how he made them feel. They felt welcomed and
included and accepted.
From our brief
interactions, I knew he was a little quirky. What I learned, though, was
that he also had some strong opinions and believed more than a few
conspiracy theories. In other words, he sounded wonderfully
human.
But what sat with me the most
wasn’t what he believed or what he accomplished. What I found most
important was that he showed up for people and
by doing that, he developed a reputation for
making others feel like they belonged.
I think that’s pretty damn remarkable.
Most of us spend a lot of our lives trying to be noticed or
respected or successful or remembered or some combination of all of
that. Yet when the stories are told, it often comes back to something
much simpler: how did people feel when they
were around you?
Did you make folks
feel judged? Did you make them feel overlooked?
Or did you make them feel like they were
important?
A simple sense of belonging
might be one of the greatest gifts we can give another person
and unlike money, talent, or influence, it’s
available to just about all of us.
- Mike.
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The Roanoke Regional Partnership had
a significant win this week, helping secure a major investment from an
Austrian wellness company that plans to bring approximately 435 jobs to
the region over the next five years.
What’s easily lost in the headlines, though, is the work
that happens before the press release.
Work like this takes significant relationship building. Site
visits. Workforce conversations. Infrastructure discussions. Communities
working together instead of competing with one another.
The folks with the Partnership continue to prove that
economic development is about creating places where people want to live,
work, and raise families, not just recruit new companies.
They’ve spent years telling the story of this
region and helping others see what many of us already know: this is a
pretty special place to be. Thankfully, others
are starting to see it, too.
To learn more about the Partnership,
click
here.
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Access to trails, rivers, parks, and public lands is
so very important. Nearly every community with
significant natural resources provides some level of access.
But some of the strongest outdoor communities
I’ve encountered offer something beyond access. They offer belonging.
People return to places where they feel welcomed. They
volunteer for organizations where they feel valued. They become
advocates for communities where they feel connected.
Belonging may not show up in an economic impact study
but it has a way of showing up everywhere
else.
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One Thought Worth Sitting With
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This week’s theme: Belonging.
“The greatest good you can do
for another is not just
share your riches, but reveal to them their
own.“
-Benjamin Disraeli
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