“We must not wish for the disappearance of our troubles but for the grace to transform them.” – Simone Weil
I Am the Decisive Element
“I have come to the frightening conclusion that I am the decisive element.
It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather.
I possess tremendous power to make life miserable or joyous.
I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration, I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal.
In all situations, it is my response that decides whether a crisis is escalated or de-escalated, and a person is humanized or de-humanized.
If we treat people as they are, we make them worse.
If we treat people as they ought to be, we help them become what they are capable of becoming.”
– Haim Ginott
Awaken Me – A Prayer of Self Reflection
Loving God, we give You thanks for the many ways each of us is called to serve in Your Healing Ministry!
Awaken me to a sense of Your presence.
Help me to catch glimpses of Your face in the faces of those around me.
Help me to see others with Your eyes and to know them as Your own precious children.
Make me aware of what I cannot or will not recognize – in myself and in others.
Make me an instrument of your peace and reconciliation.
We ask this in your name, Amen.
– Sister Claudia Ward, RSM
The Anesthesia is Wearing Off
Irving was just coming out of anesthesia after a series of tests in the hospital, and his wife, Sarah, was sitting at his bedside. His eyes fluttered open, and he murmured, “You’re beautiful.” Flattered, Sarah continued her vigil while he drifted back to sleep.
Later he woke up and said, “You’re cute.” “What happened to ‘beautiful?'” Sarah asked. “I guess the drugs must be wearing off,” he replied.
Keeping Your Sanity (or Insanity) at Work
- At lunch time, sit in your parked car and point a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
- Page yourself over the intercom. (Don’t disguise your voice.)
- Insist that your e-mail address is Xena-goddess-of-fire@companyname.com or Elvis-the-King @companyname.com.
- Every time someone asks you to do something, ask if they want fries with that.
- Encourage your colleagues to join you in a little synchronized chair dancing.
- Put your garbage can on your desk and label it “IN.”
- Develop an unnatural fear of staplers.
- Put decaf in the coffee maker for 3 weeks. Once everyone has gotten over their caffeine addictions, switch to espresso.
- Reply to everything someone says with, “That’s what you think.”
- Finish all your sentences with, “…in accordance with the prophecy.”
- Adjust the tint on your monitor so that the brightness level lights up the entire work area. Insist to others that you like it that way.
- Dont use any punctuation
- As often as possible, skip rather than walk.
- Specify that your drive-through order is “to go.”
- Sing along at the opera.
- Go to a poetry recital and ask why the poems don’t rhyme.
- Send e-mail to the rest of the company to tell them what you’re doing. For example: If anyone needs me, I’ll be in the bathroom.
- Put mosquito netting around your cubicle.
- Call the psychic hotline and just say, “Guess.”
- When the money comes out of the ATM, scream, “I won! I won! Third time this week!!!”
- When leaving the zoo, start running toward the parking lot yelling, “Run for your lives, they’re loose!”
- Tell your boss, “It’s not the voices in my head that bother me, it’s the voices in your head that do”
- Tell your children over dinner, “Due to the economy, we are going to have to let one of you go.”
- Every time you see a broom, yell, “Honey, your mother is here.”