A letter from Gordon Coyle, fall business leaders group organizer

Gordon Coyle just returned from his fifth annual pre-Thanksgiving trip to Nicaragua and wrote the following sentiments:

Life is short, and we do not have much time to gladden the hearts of those that travel on this earthly pilgrimage with us, so be swift to love, and make haste to do kindness.

 This is one of my favorite sayings, and I thought of it all week while we were together.  What an amazing group of people you are!  I feel very blessed to have been with you for a week of “joyful labor”, loads of laughs, good times, and adventure.  Unique does not begin to describe the group and the varied backgrounds and personalities within the team, but within that diversity was a common goal that we all had to learn, see, work, and experience something truly beautiful. 

The “re-entry” process is not an easy one.  We have been exposed to and connected to people living a very difficult life to say the least.  As Bonnie (Gordon) would say this creates discontentment in our minds and our guts.  This is a good thing, but it is also a difficult thing to live with, understand, and communicate.  Friends, relatives, co-workers will ask: “How was your trip?”   How do you say or explain to them what you learned, experienced and did over that week?  How do you relate to them how difficult life is for some of our brothers and sisters living less than a 5 hour plane ride from us, AND, how they can be joyful and abundant in their living with having so little?  It is a dichotomy that probably cannot be explained by even the most eloquent of us, and only learned through a first-hand experience that we have been so fortunate to have had together.

 Thank you my friends for an amazing journey (and a great birthday too!), I appreciate you and your contributions to the time we were together, and will never forget it.  Enjoy the short week and your Thanksgivings.

Gordon