Last week was a wild ride at work. My chest hurt, my stomach churned, I felt the ecstatic terror of freefall, I laughed at gallows humor.

A wise leader once told me that the job of a leader in times of instability is to provide stability. That can feel like a tall order when you’re weaving on the deck and are seasick yourself. The best way to tackle it is to take your dramamine, provide a safe space for people to experience the roiling swells without trying to make them feel a certain way, focus on what’s necessary in the moment, and ride it out. The waters will calm and the sky will clear eventually.

My dramamine was to ground in the work to help give folks focus, to check in with everyone, and for a burst of good-vibes, to ask a friend for new photos of their baby. One team member shared pictures of cosmos flowers she’d grown from seed. Another shared photos of their kids’ crazy hair day at school. We took breaks to breathe, to go for walks, to pet pets and share photos of puppies, to connect with people we feel close to and safe with.

By the end of the week, the seas began to calm. Now it’s the weekend and we can rest and apply our minds to our hopes and dreams.

I’m dreaming about travels. I have so many places I want to go. In the meantime, traveling locally is a great way to scratch the travel itch without having to break the bank. My husband found a production of Dracula in a nearby town we’ve never been to, so we’ve got weekend plans in October for that. Over land. No high seas.

Otherwise I’m grounding myself this weekend in my garden that’s blooming with fall flowers. The mums and sedums form flowering mounds of harvest gold and rusty pink, and on my walk, glitterings of goldfinches flush from meadows as I walk the solid path.