The Threads of Life

In honor of this holiday of the heart, I wanted to share a favorite poem, Threads by James Autry, author of Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership. Over 20 years ago a professor shared this poem that compares people’s need to feel connected with each other and with the human condition as threads that weave throughout workplaces. I have carried this lesson that if I can help connect these threads, business will take care of itself.

Threads
Sometimes you just connect,
like that,
no big thing maybe
but something beyond the usual business stuff
It comes and goes quickly
so you have to pay attention,
a change in the eyes
when you ask about the family,
a pain flickering behind the statistics
about a boy and a girl in school,
or about seeing them, every other Sunday.
An older guy talks about his bride,
a little affectation after twenty-five years.
A hot-eyed achiever laughs before you want him to.
Someone tells about his wife’s job
or why she quit working to stay home.
An old joker needs another laugh on the way
to retirement.
A woman says she spends a lot of her salary
on an au pair
and a good one is hard to find
but worth it because there’s nothing more important
than the baby.
Listen.
In every office you hear the threads
of love and joy and fear and guilt,
the cries for celebration and reassurance,
and somehow you know that connecting those threads
is what you are supposed to do
and business takes care of itself.
James A. Autry. Love and Profit: The Art of Caring Leadership: Avon Books Inc, August 1991