ADAM OLSEN -- The peg was where you hung your troubles before entering the house. It was an invitation to leave issues and challenges outside and enter the home ‘in a good way’
I was at an event recently where a local W̱SÁNEĆ elder was
providing a blessing to open the proceedings. He spoke about a peg that is
outside of the door of a Coast Salish longhouse.
As he told the story, and it's not the first time I had heard this
teaching, the peg was where you hung your troubles before entering the house.
It was an invitation to leave issues and challenges outside and enter the home
"in a good way." As you go, you can either pick your issues up again
and take them with you or you can leave them there.
This reminds me of my training at Butchart Gardens. The door frame to
the dining room kitchen is another place to leave your difficulties. The
premise is that everyone on staff brings with them a private life and there are
always ups and downs. However, while we are at work, we are to set them aside
and focus on the work.
This idea was a particularly helpful tool during my election, because
there is always a diverse array of challenges flying around every campaign.
In the back of the campaign headquarters is a small office with a door
that has a hypothetical nail driven on the inside. That office is where the
discussions about all the struggles of campaigning are aired out between the
candidate and the leaders of the campaign. Outside of that little back office
was a team of volunteers building positive momentum toward election day.
They need not worry about the conflict, so we hung up our struggles on
the door of that office before we went back out into the world.
Showing up in a good way
Whether it be as a waiter in The Dining Room Restaurant at Butchart
Gardens, a political candidate in the heat of a campaign or an elected MLA,
it's important that I am showing up "in a good way" so this ancient
nail is a useful technique.
Each and every constituent deserves a fresh start, a positive and
compassionate advocate. There are always many issues. It's my burden as an MLA
to work toward solutions for them all.
In that respect, it's good to have a place, to hang up the hang ups.
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