Thursday, June 11, 2009

Live More Beautifully At The Office









Over the years I've learned to watch for opportunities to be creative in the midst of what seems mundane and boring. Many years ago, my job included hours and hours of photocopying each week. I'd stand in front of that machine, turning out page after page after page. How tedious, how wearisome, so far away from any sense of creativity and fun. But I found a way to let joy overshadow the day. As that old machine cranked out reams of paper copies, I'd sing to myself. I was amazed at how much that helped me with the work. Those seven dwarfs in that old fairytale, Snow White, figured out the secret of making the time fly by whistling while they worked.

Author of Living A Beautiful Life Alexandra Stoddard once shared how she made it a lovely ritual to bring fresh flowers every Monday morning for her desk at the office. It brought a certain charm and gentility to her corner of the world. So I decided to bring fresh flowers to my office too. Sometimes I'd go to my favourite florist over lunch hour and bring back bunches of posies, leaving them on the desks of my coworkers. I was ever mindful they also had their own hours of photocopying to tend -- it made all our lives more beautiful.

Sometimes it's easy to get in a slump, especially if things are a bit dull around us. But that's the challenge, isn't it? Always looking for ways to enliven and enrich the most tedious tasks... always looking for ways to stamp our sense of beauty into the dull surfaces of our days.

I'm hoping that you'll be inspired to look for ways you can sing and dance even if you're heading off to the office for another day in the 'swamp'.


Joyfully yours,
Brenda
xox


6 comments:

  1. good ideas, it's really a matter of your perspective or outlook. being grateful that you have the health to work 9 - 5 and still have a job in these challenging days...

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  2. A friend of ours died last week and his funeral was yesterday. During the last few days many of his friends and relatives have been swopping stories about how he loved to sing - especially first thing in the morning - but only ever the first line of any song, after that it was la la la ...! He was a happy man, perhaps he lived with a song in his heart. A x

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  3. I love this sentence, "...to let the creative and fun stuff be our life and the work fills in around it."

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  4. Love,love,love,love,love,love,love,love this post!
    You have a new follower.

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  5. Lin -- How true! Good reminder!

    Anne -- I am sorry to hear about your friend. But how wonderful to think of him in such a happy way.

    Darlee -- Thanks for sharing your favourite line with me. I like it too.

    Christine -- I've gone for a visit and I think we might have some kindred spirit happening! Sure glad you stopped by. And thanks for such a wonderful comment!

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  6. You betcha! I can always cme up with some way to make work less tedious or more entertaining. I AM lucky to currently be in a line of work that is rarely dull... stressful, but not boring. It was not always so. I have had jobs that were such yawners...

    Your counsel is wise and important for all of us. Thanks a million.

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To My Beautiful Readers,

Some people come into our lives, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never the same. ~ Franz Peter Schubert

Thank you so much for leaving your 'footprint' here in my comment box. I do appreciate you taking a moment to share your thoughts today.

Brenda xo