New Conversation at Oracle

A new Spirituality at Work conversation began in March under the leadership of Jane Grodem of Oracle.  The group meets weekly on Tuesdays from noon to 1:00 in Redwood Shores at 800 Bridge Parkway, across the street from Oracle's distinctive glass towers.  Participants bring their lunches and check in with the Oracle receptionist who is quickly becoming accustomed to greeting SAW participants.  The receptionist summons Jane who directs the members to the conference room reserved for the day's conversation.   If you'd like to know more about the group or know someone else who would, you can contact Jane at jgrodem@us.oracle.com. 

SAW has a new Project Manager! Starting in mid-April, Lisa Carlton will be joining our staff to help develop SAW's program.  She'll coordinate the initiation and support of new conversation groups, work with our volunteer leadership and help us connect with other spirituality and work projects in the area. Lisa brings to us a wealth of experience with non-profit groups and is especially excited about working with organizations in their formative stage.  She characterizes herself as a "midwife," seeking to bring to her work the vision, energy, and commitment needed to facilitate the "birth" of new projects.  She's helped launch new programs for YWCA, led focus groups for a publishing company, and initiated community service projects for several women's organizations. Lisa comes to us with a Masters of Education degree in counseling and student services and a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in marketing. You can contact Lisa at LisaBCarl@aol.com.

SAW has been asked to do another leadership workshop for individuals or teams interested in initiating spirituality at work conversation within their own faith communities or work neighborhoods.  The three-hour workshop is part of a larger all-day event sponsored by the Episcopal Diocese of California on Saturday, May 20 and held in San Francisco at Grace Cathedral 1051 Taylor Street. The SAW workshop is scheduled from 9:00 to 11:45 a.m. and will cover practical strategies for beginning and maintaining ongoing conversation groups.  Participants will also have an opportunity to experience an SAW conversation and to review the materials our groups typically use to structure their time together. For more information about the content of the workshop, contact SAW coordinator, Whitney Roberson, at whitney@spiritualityatwork.com or 415-387-7224.  For registration information, contact Sue Singer, 673-5015 x 322.

SAW's coordinator Whitney Roberson has prepared a new series of six conversation "agenda" focused on issues relating to time.  The agendas consider such topics as our experience of time, the pace of our life and work, the values that inform our decisions about time and the relationship between time and money.   Groups or individuals interested in obtaining this series of agenda can email Whitney at whitney@spiritualityatwork.com.

A few years ago philosopher Jacob Needleman wrote a book called Money and the Meaning of Life. The basic premise of the book was, as I recall, that if we want to know who we are – who we really are – all we have to do is look at how we spend our money.  It's not what we believe (or say we believe,) not our philosophy of life that makes us who we are.  It's something far more concrete and accessible: our basic values– indeed, our fundamental identities as human beings -- are reflected most simply, said Needleman, in our spending habits.

So, you can see where I'm going with this, right?  If time is money, then Needleman's insightful thesis probably applies to our use of time as well: if we would know who we are, we need only notice how we spend our time.

Of course, it's not so easy is it?  I mean, if I spend all my time working does that mean I most value work?  Or the money I earn by working? Or my family which I support with the money I earn working?  There simply isn't an easy answer here.  I mean, work can be and often is enormously enriching and satisfying – truly life-giving.  And having the financial wherewithal to provide comfortably for one's family is also fulfilling.  See what I mean? It's complex.

It's about time…

I didn't know what to tell her. Oh, I tried; I said all the things you would say about working part-time and setting clearer limits for herself and making choices, and all that.  But in the end, I wasn't really telling her anything she didn't already know. She'd already been turning it over in her head, bringing her considerable intelligence to bear on the problem; what could I really add? What is the solution?  God only knows…

Ah, yes, of course.  Indeed God does know. Maybe the most helpful thing I said to her was the advice to make for the nearest art store and buy some pastels and watercolors and cheap paper. Draw the dilemma, I told her; see what comes. We're not talking about art here or even self-expression exactly.  We're talking about bypassing the head and accessing some deeper place where Divine Mystery awaits us with a healing word. And, oh yeah, I went on, pay attention to your dreams and the images they generate.  (The Divine speaks through dream images, I'm convinced; the trick is to make sense of them and that takes... time.)

It's about time: making it, spending it, finding it, keeping it.  But then I keep remembering that phrase from the Psalms; the Episcopal Church has turned it into a birthday prayer.  It begins, "Our times, O Lord, are in your hands…" Hmm, maybe I'm on to something here. Yeah, it's about time…