I ran into two colleagues yesterday.

One of them was consumed with the unpleasantries of office politics.  She spoke of unprofessional and petty behavior on the part of her officemates as well as the effect it was having on her health and the productivity of everyone around her.

Person number two was enthusiastic about a project she is working on in the evenings. For the past couple of months she has been transcribing old letters mailed by her husband's grandfather during World War II.  This woman was animated as she described passages from letters and confessed, if meeting Captain Canterbury today, that she would be intimidated by his formal upbringing, but she would genuinely like his gentle and kind soul.  She also talked about rummaging through family attics for artifacts mentioned by Captain Canterbury in the letters he mailed home.

Woman One, mired down in senseless and toxic behavior.

Woman Two, uplifted by all the positive emotions generated by her project.

The difference.  Woman Number One is inwardly focused (and maybe rightfully so).  Work circumstances have left her feeling angry and sad and focused on weighing her options for the future.  Woman Number Two is outwardly focused.  She also works in an office with politics (what office doesn't), but her gift of recovering and restoring family history leaves her joyful nonetheless.

Both women smart and both dressed professionally.  One inwardly focused and the other outwardly.  One woman with eyes that twinkle and a smile that lights up the room.

I will let you guess who.

Shining off until tomorrow...