TeachMarket.com

By Michael Werner

I have the opportunity to travel quite a bit, for business and pleasure. One of the things I like to do, especially when I’m in Europe, is attend the mostly free concerts that churches offer, usually on warm summer evenings.

Most European churches, whether in major cities or little villages, provide these concerts throughout the year. You simply walk in and have a seat. These events are usually not overly attended, so you can, if you want, tuck yourself away in a little corner and really absorb the surroundings without being distracted.

These concerts, sometimes lasting no more than 30 minutes, give me a chance to get away from the hubbub of being a visitor and to sit among some of the world’s most gorgeous architecture while I listen to beautiful music.

This is really kind of meditation for me.

The music, along with the views and musty old smells, usually transform me for awhile and I forget all about my daily concerns and problems… and being a visitor.

Good things, these concerts… check ’em out the next time you’re abroad.

It was by happenstance (if there is such a thing, huh?) that a few years ago I stumbled into the American Church in Paris, housed right off the river Seine in a classical old 19th century purpose-built church building in the heart of the Left Bank.

One of the things I discovered (and I’ve since returned to that church many times over the years) is that I am absolutely intrigued with Americans who, by choice or force, live abroad… the expatriate community. They’re a curious bunch, and I love them — on the one hard, they are clearly American, but because of their exile they have adopted ways of their host countries. So, in this case, while members of the American Church in Paris aren’t really French, they’ve learned enough about their Paris surroundings to be, well, not totally just Americans anymore.

One of the things that this church does, and incredibly well, is serve as a “social service” point for Americans living in Paris who are having a hard time adjusting to this great, yet for many quite different, city. One spouse gets transferred to work in Paris and the other comes along, only to find out that even incredible places can be lonely ones when you don’t know anyone, the partner and kids are gone all day, and you don’t know the language.

Consequently, and I’m not sure where or when it happened in their 100-plus year history, the American Church in Paris came up with a motto for their getting-used-to-a-foreign-land members, and it’s this:

Bloom where you’re planted.

They’re saying, in effect… Hey, friends, like it or not, you’re here in Paris. Make the most of it, do what you can, and move move forward. Bloom where you’re planted.

And, that’s all I have to say to you today.

Bloom where you’re planted.

You absolutely hate your job or, if not that, you know you’re not living the dream job you know you’re hankering for.

But, you can’t always pick up and move to a new city (not tomorrow, anyway), and you can’t give up that job you despise because you need to provide for your family (not tomorrow, anyway), and you can’t run away to join the circus (not tomorrow, anyway).

So, take a step in the direction you want to go, and another one tomorrow. Then, one more the next day. And remember: practice kaizen.

Don’t despair… do what you can, where you are, with what you have.

Bloom where you’re planted.

Michael Werner runs Dream Jobs Dialog and is also the CEO of InfoSource, Inc., a company trying hard not to be like Microsoft and publisher of the teacher-to-teacher marketplace, TeachBits.com.