{"id":110,"date":"2007-01-06T20:06:41","date_gmt":"2007-01-07T04:06:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/01\/remembering-the-denver-magic\/"},"modified":"2007-01-06T20:07:11","modified_gmt":"2007-01-07T04:07:11","slug":"remembering-the-denver-magic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/2007\/01\/remembering-the-denver-magic\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Denver Magic"},"content":{"rendered":"

Originally published in LLL US Western Division\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s <\/em>Connections #91, September\/October 2000<\/em><\/p>\n

It was a subdued crowd that night on the airplane from Denver to Chicago. Hot and dispirited, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d all had to make new travel arrangements after a three-hour delay. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d phoned home to report that my connecting flight to Pittsburgh had been cancelled and that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d let them know my new arrangements when I knew what they were. Many of us sprawled in our seats sighing with the aggravation of it all.<\/p>\n

And then, in the quiet of the plane, a clear, high little voice started singing.<\/p>\n

Twinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder where you are;
\nUp above the world so high, like a diamond in the sky;
\nTwinkle, twinkle, little star, how I wonder who you are.<\/em><\/p>\n

The singer was a tiny four-hear-old girl I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d noticed at the gate with her parents hours before. She was so excited about flying on a plane and had her nose to the huge window watching the ground crews until our boarding started. Her face pressed to her little window in row 21, she now sang to the star she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d noticed in the black skies illuminated with distance lightning. Here we were 39,000 feet above the Midwest in a huge metal airplane, sitting in comfort with drinks, food, pillows, blankets, and a movie, and a little child reminded me of the wonder of flight over seven miles above the earth. It may have been some of the most beautiful singing I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d ever heard.<\/p>\n

I slept that night on a cot in Chicago\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Hare Airport and was awakened at 4:30 AM to move on to the gates where several hours later I flew standby to Pittsburgh. I then waited for two hours until my son Sam finally woke up to answer our cell phone and hear I needed a ride. (Our louder, regular phone had been knocked out by lightning the night before.) Sam drove up an hour later to pick up his rumpled mom at the airport curb.<\/p>\n

There can be aggravations, delays, and cancellations in our work as Leaders and administrators as well. Remembering the magic in our work can take some effort.<\/p>\n

At our TEAM 2000 meeting in Denver, the lovely Rocky Mountains were obscured by haze from nearby wildfires. But we shared sunny walks, varied and nutritious cafeteria meals, late-night dorm-room talks, stunning talents in a lively show, an ice-cream social on a breezy patio, and group discussions of departmental challenges and solutions. We were gifted with hugs, insights, inspiration, and fun. Those memories of camaraderie and connections will always be clear and twinkling.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally published in LLL US Western Division\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Connections #91, September\/October 2000 It was a subdued crowd that night on the airplane from Denver to Chicago. Hot and dispirited, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d all had to make new travel arrangements after a three-hour delay. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d phoned home to report that my connecting flight to Pittsburgh had been cancelled and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-la-leche-league"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kathygrossman.com\/writing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}