Usually I focus my weekly post on the work we’re privileged to do for so many people. I’d like to take some time to recognize, honor and thank all the great people who work at Soles4Souls. This is the letter I wrote to the entire team. Many of you have had the chance to interact with them. If you haven’t, I can only hope you do soon. Your life will be the better for it.
Hope your Christmas is all you need it to be.
To the Soles4Souls team:
Christmas and New Year are complicated holidays for me. The hustle and bustle and stress and consumption somehow seem at odds with what the season is supposed to be about. And there’ s a good reason that the Roman god for whom January is named, Janus, is two-faced both looking back at the year and anticipating what lies ahead.
But here’s what is not complicated. I am as proud as I have ever been to work with you and the entire team at Soles4Souls. So I hope that whatever Christmas and the New Year mean to you that you are able to enjoy, celebrate, reflect and anticipate in equal measure on the good fortune that fills our lives. We are lucky to be reminded, often, by the work that we do here of what other lives can be like.
Each of us has chosen to earn our daily bread by doing something different than most people and do it for those who are among the overlooked, forgotten and unheard. For me, you are the best of what Christmas and New Year mean.
Have a very meaningful Christmas and I wish you and those you love all the best in 2013.
Buddy Teaster, Soles4Souls CEO
