Surviving the Workday

Dear Lord,

So far I’ve done all right.
I haven’t gossipped,
haven’t lost my temper,
haven’t been greedy, grumpy, nasty, selfish, or overindulgent.
I’m really glad about that.

But in a few minutes, God,
I’m going to get out of bed.
And from then on,
I’m going to need a lot more help.

Author Unknown

Monday, March 20th, is the spring equinox when the day and night are of the same length.

Starhawk suggests a simple meditation in the Eostar Bunny. It can be done tomorrow, Monday, or on the days surrounding Spring Equinox. This is a meditation that is particularly geared toward examining the role of work in your life and your life’s work.

Take a bowl of salt water and sit at your altar or, better yet, in the garden or a quiet place outside. Ground: Breathe deeply and slowly and feel your physical and energetic connection to the earth.

Then ask yourself: What do I truly care about? What are the things that are truly sacred to me? Do I spend my life energies, my time, my attention, my money, on what I care most about? Are my best life energies going to serve what is truly sacred to me? If so, is there some support or help or renewal of energy I need? Is there somewhere I can ask for it, or can I make time in my life for it? If not, if my best life energies are not going to support what is truly sacred to me, what might I need to do to make a change? Do I need to change my job, or rethink how I spend my money or my time? What could I simplify?

The idea of spring cleaning goes back centuries. It helps us organize our physical environments, and as a result, our minds. It’s my belief that a cluttered work space represents a cluttered mind. And as the spring equinox approaches, it’s time to organize your workspace.

Check out Organize your office for some tips from Money Magazine.

Take the Spring Equinox Quiz!

I got 7 of 10.

I’m not a Christian except in the most broad, most left sense, but this was still a fun quiz on schools of Christian thought.

Here are my results (apparently I groan a lot):

You might be an affective pray-er beyond words. You feel the love of God for you, and address him with groans, tongues or silence; you love to bask in his presence. Any tradition that provides warm emotion and a sense of God’s immediate presence will suit you - from the Anglican mystical tradition to the charismatic movement.

If you’re looking for a place to start, you could do worse than the works of William Inge (an examples of a tradition fictionalised as that of the Darrows by Susan Howatch); or you could explore the writings of the early Quakers, or a contemporary writer such as Ruth Barton. But the work that may most exactly meet your needs is the fourteenth century anonymous work ‘The Cloud of unknowing’. ‘By love may he be gotten and holden, but by thought neither… and therefore struggle to bide in this darkness as long as you may, evermore crying after him whom you love…’ At the same time, according to Westerhoff, you are likely to feel a need for and a fascination with the oppsite poles (a more reflective, active, verbal spirituality).

You will find this, according to your bent, in conservative evangelicalism, liberation theology or even in the more austere forms of Jesuit thought.
Take this quiz

My favorite time of the day to do work is right when I get up. That sounds sort of sick, but my head is clear, I haven’t dealt with emails and phone calls, and I can focus. I try to only do my own writing then because it feels like a shame to give the best hour to anyone else.

I’m reminded of an old Oprah about ordinary millionaires in which a librarian became a millionaire by paying herself first. Then she paid the mortgage. This wouldn’t have ever occurred to me as a strategy.

So I’m giving myself the best time first.

What’s your best time of day?

Only Breath

Not Christian or Jew or Muslim, not Hindu
Buddhist, sufi, or zen. Not any religion

or cultural system. I am not from the East
or the West, not out of the ocean or up

from the ground, not natural or ethereal, not
composed of elements at all. I do not exist,

am not an entity in this world or the next,
did not descend from Adam or Eve or any

origin story. My place is placeless, a trace
of the traceless. Neither body or soul.

I belong to the beloved, have seen the two
worlds as one and that one call to and know,

first, last, outer, inner, only that
breath breathing human being.

Mevlâna Jalâluddîn Rumi translated by Coleman Barks

Michael Lerner is a cool guy. I heard him speak at the University of Chicago in 1996 and decided I wanted to be him. But that was 10 years ago when I believed I could transform myself into a male rabbi. He’s also the founder and editor of Tikkun, which is something we should probably all subscribe to.

Anyway, he writes interestingly about what spirituality means in Spirituality is not flaky new age mush:

So, don’t let distortions or flaky versions of spirituality lead you to give up on establishing a spiritually alive reality in your personal life or in your religious community, because there is no substitute for it, no matter how powerful your social action or how satisfying your connection with community activities. The future of our religious and spiritual communities depends on reconnecting to the sacred, and that will only happen if you begin this process in your own life.

It’s easy enough to think that to be spiritually alive is a state of mind that is impossible to achieve, but it’s a step by step journey. It’s something you can do everyday. For that matter, it’s something you should (see I’m adding judgment here) do everyday. Finding the sacred is as easy as taking a breath.

Have you noticed that if you roll out of bed and head out for your run, that the hardest part was just gettting out of the house and taking the first step? It’s not the run that’s the challenge, it’s getting to the first step.

Have you also noticed that the hardest part of starting a tedious task is the first three minutes? After that, you seem to figure it out albeit slowly. It’s not the task that’s the challenge, it’s the momentum to start that stops us.

Patricia Ryan Madson writes of this phenomenon, Kick-Start Your Life! Make Your Bed

Kick-start your life—walk, run, crawl, fly, bicycle; move in the direction of your purpose. Love your parents? Pay them a visit. Need to write? Sit down at your desk. Want to have more friends? Show up at a volunteer job or a class in a subject that interests you. Need to exercise? Go to the gym or walk to the park. Believe in ecology? Take a plastic bag to the neighborhood park and pick up trash.

What do you do to kick start your life?

Sacred Space has a guided daily prayer that you can do at your computer (quietly) at work.

What does it mean to be spiritual? Can you be both spiritual and angry?

Often I’ve heard people use “spiritual” as a synonym for “peaceful.” Spirituality (for me, anyway) is about connection–connection to others, connection to nature, connection to God.

And part of what I become aware of as I become more connected is the great inequalities on earth: the bigotry, the racism, the homophobia, the terrible things done in the name of God( but actually for greed, lust, and power). And this leads to anger. Great anger, not only for me, but often on behalf of others.

Anger is one of the most powerful emotions we have. If we allow it to fester within us, it can destroy us. I’m reminded of my grandfather, who was so bullied by his own father that he still speaks of it daily (if not hourly) thirty years after his father has been put in the ground.

And if we release its unwieldy energy at the wrong person, it can hurt deeply. I’m thinking of a former boss who used to throw her rage at me simply because I was nearby (I quit after three months, but that wasn’t really soon enough).

But, if we manage to use our anger, wield it gracefully, it is a powerful force for change within ourselves and in the world around us. This is one of the most difficult (and important) practices to do. I think of much of the change in this country, and this world that has been positive has been from anger that was wielded gracefully and powerfully.

Some Thoughts on Spirituality and Anger from John Ballew contemplates attitudes toward anger in Buddhism, Christianity, and Wicca, as well as attitudes toward anger in the GLBT communities.

I’ve noticed the harder and longer I work, the more difficult it is to stop working in so-called downtime.

It seems that work has become a habit, and it’s something it’s hard to give up, even on Saturday, when I don’t seem to have to work.

I’m not sure what the spiritual aspects to this are–but habits are sort of an interesting thing, and so is the idea of balance. But in the excerpt of the sermon I posted last week, it seems less important to make a distinction between work and play, and just doing good work.

I’m wondering if anyone else has noticed this phenomenon?

It’s called Pandora and it’s a way to make your own customized radio station.

After you register, you choose an artist (I chose Ani DiFranco) and then it plays songs that are similar in style to her work, as well as her own work.

And you can yay or nay each song (thus removing Alanis Morrisette from the play list, thank you very much).

I stream a lot of Internet radio and this gets rid of my personal pet peeve–a great radio show can end after a few hours and be replaced with show tunes.

And Pandora has a ton of indie artists. A ton. For free. Though why wouldn’t you want to throw a little money toward the independent artist by buying their work sometimes?

Once you create a station you like, you can also invite people to use the station. Why not invite me?

What do you know about Gnosticism and early Christianity?

Shockingly good news! I got 8 out of 10!

For more information about vanished forms of Christianity, click here.

When I worked at a large publishing company, we endured a sort of feast or famine syndrome. We either had more work than anyone could handle or very little. During times of famine (or times of expected famine), people were laid off. A big business can do that–cut the losses (salaries) so that the quarterly profits are high enough to keep the board happy.

But it’s that way too with your own business. It seems impossible to maintain a perfect balance between enough work and enough pay. Many people I know alternate from various extremes–no work, no money, or tons of work, tons of money. Neither lasts too long.

Rob Siegel does an admirable job of describing this phenomenon in his article, Balancing Too-Much, Not-Enough Work. An excerpt is below:

Three weeks into my push to replace the budget-crunch loss, I had replaced my lost work. But five weeks later, I was still accepting work from prospects who were slow to move. Eight weeks after my prospecting binge, my original client called and announced that her freelance budget had been restored and she was ready to send along a series of article assignments. Still stinging from the fear of not having enough work, I said, “Great.” She asked whether I had the time, and I replied, “Certainly.”

Even as the words left my mouth, I knew I was committing to months without a good night’s sleep. It was back to the wake-at-three-in-the-morning grind. But how can you say no when the work you’re getting is making your dreams of self-employment come true? After all, in another ten weeks it could all dry up and blow away.

Cary Tennis of Since You Asked on Salon has a great response to a vegan activist’s dark night. For those of us who are activisits, no doubt we’ve felt similarly. An excerpt of his response:

Sometimes we adopt beliefs that meet certain personal needs of which we are unaware. We might have, for instance, a strong spiritual thirst that no religion can satisfy, and so we imbue our activities in the secular realm with a spiritual passion and fervor, and so we take practical setbacks especially hard. Or we might have a powerful moral sense of right and wrong and yet a very sensitive nature, and so we are drawn to debates and yet find that we take things too personally. When our activities are meeting several needs at once, particularly when some of those needs are hidden, we often find that the thing we love is also the thing that gives us the most pain. So it is important for you as an activist to know yourself well.

Sister Joan Chittister writes of the importance of work, this need to work, to feel fulfilled in our daily tasks, in her insightful sermon, The Spirituality of Work, an excerpt of which is below:

The truth is that the most telling indicator of the spiritual deterioration of the Western world may well be in its modern disregard for work. People work for money now, not for the sake of the work itself. People work so that they can do something other than work as soon as possible.

People work to be employed, not for the sake of creative expression. People work in segmented tasks that have no meaning to them. And so, ironically enough, we have separated work and life. Work is something we do because we have to do it, not something that we want to do because it is in itself fulfilling, meaningful, important to the world around us.

We work hard, yes, but we don’t begin to live until after the workday is over. We work for personal profit now; we do not work for human gain or human expression. It is a sad commentary on creation. But with motives like those, it is possible to do anything of any caliber and never even realize the moral schizophrenia into which we have fallen. We have arrived at the point where people can work in nuclear arms plants and never feel an ounce of concern about the potential effects of their work.

In the interview that follows her sermon, she describes several questions to ask yourself about your work:

1. Am I doing whatever I’m doing the best I can do it?

2. Am I giving an honest day’s work for an honest day’s wage? Am I myself being honest and just?

3. Do I know what my company does, and do I believe in it? Can I make the way I go into that office a ministry?

One challenge of backing off and not talking about god in the public arena is that liberals have essentially left religion to evangelicals, who have become the “experts” on what god means, what he thinks, and what he wants from us.

Deepak Chopra writes of this in Outsourcing God:

The vast majority outsource faith to the minority who seem to think it is a matter of life and death. The right’s religious fixations percolate at a level of society that has almost nothing to do with science, technology, Wall Street, medicine, law, or any of the other preoccupations of modern American life. Only one field, politics, has been susceptible to religious fervor.

“Being able to manage uncertainty is what separates those who prosper in business and spirit.”

Anyone know who said that? It’s written on my desk, but I have no idea about the source. Google hasn’t been too helpful.

I Look to Thee in Every Need

I look to Thee in every need, and never look in vain;
I feel Thy strong and tender love, and all is well again.
The thought of Thee is mightier far than sin and pain and sorrow are.

Discouraged in the work of life, disheartened by its load,
Shamed by its failures or its fears, I sink beside the road.
But let me only think of Thee and then new heart springs up in me.

Thy calmness bends serene above, my restlessness to still;
Around me flows Thy quickening life, to nerve my faltering will.
Thy presence fills my solitude, Thy providence turns all to good.

Enfolded deep in Thy dear love, held in Thy law, I stand;
Thy hand in all things I behold, and all things in Thy hand.
Thou leadest me by unsought ways, and turn my mourning into praise.

Samuel Longfellow, Unitarian

Max Barry wrote a book that sounds awesome. It’s called Company and it’s a work environment that you may find familiar.

Anne Boles Levy reviews his book in the Los Angeles Times and presents this delightful description of the world of Company.

It’s a serf-eat-serf world in cubicle-land these days, as Stephen Jones, whose nametag says only “Jones,” quickly learns at Seattle-based Zephyr Holdings. Jones, the protagonist of Max Barry’s “Company,” is a recent college grad. His first assignment is to investigate a purloined doughnut, while more seasoned sales assistants tackle such heady tasks as fudging expense accounts or overusing the company gym.

Jones learns to navigate the rat race that winds among the maze of cubicles as it does in any office where the bosses randomly downsize the cheese. That is, until Jones makes the mistake of asking what Zephyr Holdings actually does.

Nobody knows. What’s more, they don’t care. They’re miserable and underpaid and that’s good enough for them. When Jones tries to rouse enthusiasm for an employee coup, his co-workers would rather play strip poker.

Wait, wait. Didn’t I work with these people?