Greetings, Cloud Quakers! After our last silent worship and community discussion, where we discussed control as a barrier to spirituality and how to carry on in the face of difficult people, I felt called in this moment to pen a blog post. One member mentioned problematic people plaguing her current work, with an acknowledgment that we can all be problematic, at times. Later in the discussion segment, we talked about control, and our attempts at trying to let go, to allow the spirit/God/the Universe to guide us through a path of least resistance. We also talked about good versus evil, right versus wrong - or, in a less judgmental way, the yin and the yang. All of these conversations circle in my head today, as I am in the midst of a rather frustrating work week.
My work of late has also been fraught with colleagues who, from my vantage, put up significant barriers. In my mind, these people are not on the side of what's right, as they put up barriers to work I perform on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. However, as I evaluate each individual who appears to make things harder, I don't see evil or bad people. I see people who are, in some way or another, interested in creating a more diverse and equitable workplace. But also, I can look at a string of events that I set up - structured as a critical path, where one thing must happen before the next can proceed - and I realize that I am absolutely trying to control. Of course, I don't think I am doing anything wrong. As many workplaces do, mine prizes operational efficiency. I was originally hired for these skills. I actually think American society values operational efficiency above much else. Think about our resistance to single payer healthcare. This is a policy that brings about much equity in other first (or second) world countries, but ours refuses to give in. Why? A belief - true, in some instances, of the operational efficiency that is only found in the American healthcare system. Well, and the vast $$$ poured into lobbying elected officials by the health insurance industry, to keep our policies status quo. But, I digress.
Since trying to abide more conscientiously to a spiritual path, I am trying to apply this at work with a "go with the flow" and patient attitude. But I haven't really been able to shift my mindset. And in my attempts to move things forward at a decent pace, I moved too quickly, and created a conundrum, and created far more work and turmoil for myself. As I am sure many Americans (or all humans) can relate to, I feel overwhelmed. The amount of tasks and responsibilities on a given day are too much, it feels. So how can I sit back and accept patience? At work, people who contemplate for too long get a bad reputation. The leaders demand to see output - which I should know, since once of my specialties is creating metrics.
I guess in the end, and this was some of our discussion both this and last week, how can we reconcile the business world (which I equate to the capitalist world) with spiritualism? From a DEI lens, it's become a little incorrect to talk about religion at work. And frankly, I don't know that most religions these days embrace contemplation and collective decision making, as the Quakers do. So where do we go from here? I have no answers, although a Quaker revolution could be a good thing! Until next time!
