So it's day 1 of my Living Spiritually blog…and I can't fathom a better way to start it than to (like a proud parent) introduce my new sponsor child, Abigael, whose info just arrived in the mail last night (...now that’s what I call good timing…)
Abigael is just turning 8, and lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo with her father, a subsistence farmer (farms just to provide food for his family), and her mother. Not sure if she has any siblings yet… I hope to find out when we start writing to each other! I plan to keep this child close to my heart always, as a poignant reminder that a. there are gross, ridiculous imbalances in the world, b. we in the western world are the ones who benefit from those gross imbalances, and c. as people fortunate enough to have access to way more of everything than we need to survive, it’s our responsibility to share the disposable income that we have, so that others can have enough to live. All it takes is a monthly cheque worth as much as I spend on coffee in a month! That’s putting things into perspective. It’s mind-boggling. I sit at my office desk for a day and probably make more money than this family makes in an entire year doing 100 times the amount of work. Oh, Abigael. My goal, lofty though it may be, is to inspire hope in her with words at least as much as I’m able to with money. Her favourite subject is reading and lord knows I love to write, so we make a good pair :-)
So that's the Democratic Republic of Congo part....now, about the cubicle. As soon as I first laid eyes on this area (see left), I knew I had to make it my mission to turn the grey and beige party into somewhere I could actually fathom spending 8 hours of everyday, before it sucked the life right out of me. The more I thought about it, the more I got excited at the prospect of turning this cubicle into a positive space that I felt comfortable in...that had an inspiring feel to it. Timing wise, again, this all aligned perfectly with the start of this new phase of my blog. (It's fate!) So after googling creative cubicle spaces for inspiration, Raph and I went cubicle decor shopping to pick up a few little things... a colourful lamp, a picture matrix frame, a hangable whiteboard, a plant (fail on that last one so far... going to Walmart to buy plants is evidently like going to McDonald's to buy a salad). I printed out some pictures of my peeps, and put them in the frame...seemed game-ready to go... but then I also thought I'd try printing out a few extra pictures of things that typically tend to put me in the right frame of mind (eg. cool artwork, pictures of inspiring people, some graphic representations of my fave quotes) and pinning those up, too. Worth a go... and hey, I figured if it looked too over the top when I got there, I could just take them right on down and try something else until I found the right "balance". So I brought everything in yesterday, and set it all up....and I cannot tell you how instantly more at ease I felt. The effect on my mood, creativity and productivity was surprising even to me. OT peers are going to cringe at this one, but seriously, this cubicle decor induced me in instant flow. I settled into what proved to be a very productive and pain-free morning. At some point, I glanced over at my whiteboard and felt the urge to sprawl a big inspirational quote on there ( I was kind of on a roll.) And then I thought hey...I could try doing this every morning! I'll consider this to be my first real "spiritual living" experiment... I predict the process of discovering a new awesome quote, writing it out on my whiteboard first thing in the morning, and then looking up at it throughout the day will feed my creative process tremendously. So, I proceeded to write out a quote from the Dalai Lama that I had just found the day before: "The more you are motivated by love, the more fearless and free your action will be". I stepped back to look at it. I had a moment of self-doubt. "Maybe this is too much..." I thought, finding myself struck with the ego-serving desire to want to make a good first impression on people and "fit in". But then I realized that's where that thought was coming from, and decided to leave it up anyway. By the end of the day, I was really happy with that decision, because a. I had ignored that little voice inside the head that's wrong 99% of the time, and b. the quote gave me renewed positive energy all day.
Incredibly, that positive energy I decided to put out there took less than 24 hours for it to come back to me. This morning, I arrived at work and sat down at my desk. I'd had a pretty lonely day the day before, devoid of human contact, since my boss is the only person I know yet and is away, I haven't been introduced to many other people, and my cubicle is not really in a well-trafficked area. Almost immediately, someone I'd never met walked by and exclaimed "so YOU'RE the person that works here!" I looked over, mildly caught off guard..."Yep, that's me!" I replied, waiting to get a sense of what she was looking for. "I walked by your cubicle yesterday and I just love all the stuff you have going on here...love this quote...that lamp is AWESOME...so I just had to come by today to see who this bubbly positive person is that's moved in!" I smiled. We chatted briefly. She took the time to let me know that most people in the office like to hang up their coats (as she noticed mine draped on my chair), and voluntarily showed me where the coatrack was before moving on with her day.
And that, my friends, is karma.
xo Janine
PS: I'll try to post a picture or two of the new and improved cubicle as soon as I can get my blackberry phone camera to start working again...oh, technology.
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