A relationship with a client recently ended. I had evidence that the break-up was coming, and yet I still felt a little surprised when it happened.

What surprised me more than the decision to part ways, was the plethora of ongoing projects, unfinished plans, and unanswered questions still tying me to them. It was as if they were the arms of a cephalopod, or even better yet a myriad of dendritic tendrils crossing the neural synapse.

For 2 years I had been laying roots and growing branches into their fields. Not just dull couplings, but living connections that could sense and feel. I wanted to understand them, to really know them.

What made them tick?

What fuels them?

How they could make decisions and behave in a way so foreign to me?

All those tendrils were severed, unceremoniously, in a 12 second phone call.

Part of me feels like I should recoil and retreat into where it’s safe. But something else says this an opportunity.

It’s time to grow into other pastures. To plant seeds in other soil.