Imagine being an audience of one, receiving joy

I received the most wonderful mahalo gift today.

Over the course of the last three months I have done six sessions on various Managing with Aloha lesson plans for an ‘ohana in business 40 people strong. This afternoon was our 6th and final session.

They have been terrific students. I have experienced such joy in their eagerness to learn. They have delighted me as they have written their exercises in the margins and open spaces of my book’s pages, turning down the corners where their Next Action steps will help them manage with aloha day by new day; Ka la hiki ola.

As I prepared to leave, wishing all a Merry Christmas, the room filled one more time with all those who had attended the sessions. They said they had a gift for me.

I received a beautiful yellow ginger lei, but best of all, the gift of song: They sang two Christmas carols for me, and not at all tentatively — they really belted them out, singing them with gusto. I was an audience of just one, but you would have thought they were auditioning for the conductor of the Honolulu Symphony.

The very best gifts never come wrapped in boxes.