There is an glyph called the Triskellion and it fits today.

Imagine 3 symbols for mind, body, spirit. Imagine these images are Zen symbols meant to be the swirling winds of chaos--of storm. The 3 storms are connected to each other by lines of straight lightening. Imagine you stand at the intersection of the lightening bolts. You stand alone, calm, solid, and stayed in the eye of the storm.

You are at peace, above and apart from the chaos whipping around you--for you are centered. This is the Triskellion. This is you.

You are firm, calm, alone in the madness, and you stand tall and clear. If you ever need to see it, it hangs around my neck and I've been told that it's me.

Today, I took an early lunch to take care of some personal business and to get out of the cube. I needed to get out in the sun as it was a strange day...not much going on--though I still got stuff done--and the timber of the office was...subdued, ominous, apprehensive...odd. I had the headphones on and tried to plug away as I could while sharing time and laughs with my teammates when we got together for conversations.

During my outside time for lunch the heads started to roll at work, 4 days early.

A friend at work had told me--earlier in the week--that this would start on Thursday (today) and that information was spot on. My early lunch, and being marked out on the board caused some panic and concern amongst my teammates when they saw the Reaper's swath cutting down ranks...., "Where's Jason? He doesn't leave this early normally...he's marked out on the board...did he get laid off?"

I had no idea about any of this happening until I came back and Charles popped over to give me the head's up, "Not a good day to lunch early." That caught my interest. He filled me in and told me about the concern my teammates had for me. That means a Hell of a lot to me. It's touching. We have a tight and talented group.

I quipped that I had marked that I was returning on the board. :o)

M teammates' concern meant a lot to me.

The rest of the day was somber, down, and apprehensive. How can it not be? Lots of conversation, lots of concern, lots of good luck wishes...then a source told me that the all clear note would be given at 4pm, this also ended up being true.

I am safe. My teammates are safe. This is awesome!!

Since March, we've been up in the air and on notice...very tense. As of this evening, I have a job. I don't know what the new position will be, I hope it will be good, I hope it will be fun. I hope I have my friends around me.

I am celebrating tonight. I'm toasting it up, I'm deflating, I'm thanking the fates and the blessings.

As of today, I have a beautiful new car, my house is getting in order, and I have the WAMP (Windows, Apache Server, MySQL, and PHP) up and running. I have the GUI tools running. I have side projects under way and I have success being achieved. This has been a huge period for me. I was given 3 late in the game opportunities to show my skills, to rise up in the chaos, and I seized each opportunity to do so and I ran with it.

I had a major hurdle to overcome in my mind, but that's where that notion will stay. I did it. I'm free of it.

It tried to sell me down the river. It was wrong, it was misguided, and it was misinformed about me and my intentions; it shouldn't have lost faith. I stood calm despite that and I took direct action--I achieved. That success isn't stopping any time soon for I have risen above the hurdle and I have not changed my attitude nor sold out my being, but that's a story for a private conversation amongst trusted and select friends.

My team survived!! This is a great joy to me as I truly value them as a friends and teammates; from director to manager to the team members--all are valued highly by me. We will continue to achieve and push the boundaries. We did loose one key friend though and she will be missed sorely. She has a ton of talent and is a great teammate.

Live well, laugh often, love much,
Jason Henke

Two employees bring Fairview values to life during IS transition

Although times may be tough, it doesn’t mean our employees’ lack of commitment or dedication to excellent customer service is waning. Take Jason Henke, application systems analyst and Michelle Tucker, site supervisor, for example. These two IS employees recently stepped up to help build the preferences tool you all used earlier this week and create a database to help store and organize the information—saving countless hours of administrative work on the back end. They also helped create the manager assessment form—another tool that will be key during the employee placement process. It’s the can-do attitude and innovative approach that Jason and Michelle have displayed in this work that will fuel the success of the IS organization going forward.

There are some good tidbits behind this story and I'll share some of them after the 16th. I was also given some private and personal recognition as well. This is all greatly appreciated by me in these times as it's a good boost to my spirits.

Live well, laugh often, love much,
--Jason Henke