This is how it ends

First they came for the contractors and I did not speak out
Because I was not a contractor

Then they came for the regional offices and I did not speak out
Because I didn’t work in a regional office

Then they came for the support staff and I did not speak out
Because I was not support staff

Then they came for the administrators and I did not speak out
Because I was not an administrator

Then they came for the secondees and the probationary and the temp contracts- and I tried to speak out
Just a little
But not really
because I don't have a probationary contract

Then they came for my entire programme
All the work I have ever done
All the work I believe matters
Everything I and my colleagues fought for
All the years of service and passion and innovation
And I said I would speak out
I wanted to speak out

But

Then they came for the old people
And I am an old person
And then there was no one else left to speak about anything at all

And then I found out how much my ideals are worth

$46,000

That is how much it takes to buy my silence.

How not to say goodbye

Here's a tip.

If someone in your organization is leaving after decades of loyal service, perhaps you can think of a better way to say "farewell" than stuffing some money and an unsigned generic greeting card into an envelope and tossing it on the staff room counter.

You know who you are.

Do better.

every step you take

Imagine your life's journey as a path. With every step you take, you put a stone on that path. In the rolling prairie and on the snow-covered hills, you put down a stone. Wherever you go-exploring new territory, visiting foreign lands,hurrying down city streets, trudging through the desert, or wandering aimlessly along a beach-for each step you take, you lay down a stone. Through driving snow and blinding sun and spring rains. Through the good times and the bad times. When you know where you're going, and when you are lost and without direction. Sometimes that path is exciting and new while other times it is grindingly monotonous and dull. Some days you walk with friends and some days a loved one holds your hand. On other days you are alone. Sometimes your path is easy and you bound ahead, filled with a sense of adventure: at other times you don't know if you have the strength to take another step.

Now imagine yourself at the end of your life's journey. Look back at the stones on your life's path. Look at those stones you laid down, on the mountains and in the valleys and along the river side. In the sun and the wind and the rain. Your path through life. 

And on each one of those stones there now stands a person.  A person who was able to take his or her own journey because you set the path. A path made easier because you laid down that stone. Every step you took helped someone else get where they needed to go. 

The path you take is yours and yours alone. No one else can walk it for you. But with every step you take, you leave a part of yourself behind. Just as others left a path for you, you make a path for those who come behind. And while you may be so focused on your own journey that you do not see the trail you have forged, it is there just the same. 

Your path through life. 

Walk well my friends.

Some Aboriginal wisdom for all who wonder what they will leave behind.