Sylvia's Journal

When I close my eyes tightly it snows and I can stay at home, even in bed; but when I open them the snow is gone and the roads are clear and I can get up and go to work. Once in a while Axel questions my getting up so early – as if to talk me out of it. And I explain, once more, that getting up early is way more preferable for me than getting up late and having to rush. Rushing in the morning is inauspicious; I would forget things like my wallet, the magnetic card that lets me into work or my cell phone. At any time, but especially this time of the year, I would pay a price for such neglectfulness that far outweighs the price of getting up a little earlier. So there!

Yesterday was maybe the shortest day in terms of daylight but it was surely the longest day away from home (while not traveling). Halfway through 10-miles-per-hour commute home I called Tessa to commiserate, expecting her to be stuck in traffic somewhere near. She did not answer and I left a message. I then called home where Tessa cheerfully answered that she was already home; no one wanted to commiserate with me and my whining fell on deaf ears. Axel gave me some of my own lines about not being a victim and pull up to get something to eat if I was hungry and all that crap that I give others about ‘being an agent of change!’ Ha! This is to remind me that timing is everything and that there can be a great disconnect between the message giver and the message receiver. I know this intellectually but it is good to experience it in the gut from time to time. In Holland we call this ‘giving someone a cookie of one’s own dough.’

At work it was a day of nonstop meetings. This is the Monday I am supposed to work at home but as soon as people got wind that I was in the office the meetings started piling up. I had printed out my Outlook calendar which directed me from one meeting place to the next, all day long.

At noontime Margaret came over to talk with us about her latest book and how to preserve ‘soul’ in the middle of a lot of soullessness at work. I was surprised to see how many people showed up. There appears to be a real hunger to talk about matters of spirituality at work. We are after all working in a nonprofit and people could earn a lot more by working for a profit-driven company. But most of us choose to come here which gets us something money can’t buy.

The final part of the day was a video presentation to our funders in DC. I was asked to talk about our Ghana leadership program that is unfolding slowly and not always visible to our eyes. Nevertheless, a last minute email from Ghana was encouraging – a few people are stepping up to the leadership plate and making the changes that were needed. Today I will be exploring with the man in charge how we can support this further and show, compellingly, how better (a) better management and leadership makes a difference, and (b) how this can be ‘engineered.’