workplace creativity and commitment

How about this workplace stress reduction photo I found? Totally unrelated to the following piece on the workplace:

"Some employers are under the mistaken impression that paying a salary is enough to earn them an employee's commitment. In fact, employees decide how much of themselves to give to their jobs based not just on financial compensation, but also on how fairly they feel they're treated... how creatively involved they are in the organization... and how meaningful and principled they think their work is.

If people you supervise feel that they are appreciated, intellectually challenged and working for a good cause, you'll receive their full efforts."

I don't have the source info on this quote; sorry about that. I grabbed it on the run.
(Photo Credit: http://members.home.nl/j.dammeijer/index.htm)

Sandy, Miles, Nathan, Mike and Me outside Kerbey Lane

These are some of the far-flung members of my family. Sandy (my niece) and Miles are from Olympia, Washington and are here to visit us and then go to Galveston to visit Miles' dad. Maybe to stay there for a while....
Mike is working here in town ever since he got out of the army a few years ago.
Nathan is working here in town also in his own therapy practice. See his website at http://www.austintherapist.com/. More info to come.....

My niece Sandy and her boyfriend Miles visit

Yay for my team; musings on fashion mags

I just couldn't resist posting this picture when I saw it. I am a fan of both these two, His Holiness the Dalai Lama and Senator Barak Obama, who preside over and work in two disparate worlds -- the spiritual and the political. it almost shocked me when I saw it because I had those two worlds separated out in my own mind-- compartmentalized. LIke I had to shift my focus to take in first one, and then another, and then finally both at the same time.

What else have we (sadly) compartmentalized? I know I do that when I read a fashion magazine and then when I look at myself in the mirror and am just glad that I still look okay. Sometimes great, but never wholly "bad." Whatever that is. But I try to never compare myself to the models in the fashion mags, even their clothes. I do get inspired to wear better, but never to take seriously what they are showing as fashion on the streets of NYC or the beaches of Cancun and compare that with what I'm going to wear to HEB. (And never mind the age factor! Don't let me get started on that.)

I used to really get into reading the fashion mags (or People magazine or whatever), and it can become painful when you start comparing their life to yours or their fashion accessory to your dumpy bag from Target. Now when that happens, I drop the mags like a hot potato. I don't have time to argue with Mother Nature or the boss from The Devil Wears Prada. I don't have time to pine away because my hair makes split ends almost as fast as I can make hair. Or my skin is only happy when it's being showered with fresh air and exercise, and not makeup (!!). Except for the eyes. The eyes are okay with makeup. The rest of me wants to breathe!

Okay. That's enough from me right now. I'm outta here! Til next time....

But, hey, let me know if you think I should split this up into two different posts. I might do it. But only if you ask.

Stroke of Insight - Jill Bolte Taylor

This is the most wonderful video on science/psychology/mind/spirituality I've ever seen! Check it out!

http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/jill_bolte_taylor_s_powerful_stroke_of_insight.html

family neuroses and just plain love

I called my sister Cynthia today just on the spur of the moment when I saw her phone number. Didn't know I had her number. (She called me a year or so ago.) She answered and we talked. She relayed some disturbing family news. I was able to feel loving and be loving toward her and she reacted with tears and thanks. It moved me to be able to be in that place where I could offer her that. She's been through so much. She lives in Illinois now, near my father.

I wondered about her relationship to my father, who I have regarded warily and not trusted due to some incidents with him and my brother's feelings against him. But my sister seems to be able to maintain a relationship with him. The more I marveled at how one (wo)man's pride is another (wo)man's poison (or something like that), the more I realized that we all had someone.

We all had some kind of life even if it wasn't very pretty. I thought of an older friend I had who's been like a father to me and how I didn't want to let go of that friendship and counsel. I don't know my father and probably never will -- out of awareness of his mental/emotional limitations -- and my early fearful experiences of him -- but I do have someone that I hold in high esteem and look to for what I didn't get with him. And I emailed him that. Satisfying to let someone dear to you know what they mean to you. Both through words (with my friend) and through actions (with my sister).

things are developing...

things are developing ... for better or worse .... I think it will all come out in the wash (in 3+ weeks), but til then, I'm trying to lay low and think about the good stuff in my life.... but definitely am thinking about writing about what's happening at work.

Like how much can I say about things here? How much do I want to say? Enough to get my feelings out to feel heard and to get my point across. I'm sick of being silent.

Things have been rotten in Denmark a long time and I've gotten momentarily outraged but never did anything about it...not that I should now. It's just that things have gotten out of hand. I'll leave it at that for now.

Thanks for listening. More to come. Don't have any decent images to get across the doom and gloom I've been feeling....but I also want the bright spot to speak and not just revel in the darkness.