Frustration at Work: Tadpole Days by Alice Houghtaling

My frustration at work was acute this week. Personalities clashing with personalities and the resulting frustration being a crummy end to a high-energy week. Ever have one of those times? I do. And I won’t be smarmy about it.

Work is where faith and the business of living in community with others who all come from different viewpoints as well as different everything else, get thrown into close quarters. I try to be aware that there is value and meaning in our being together and those values and meanings aren’t simply in the almighty buck!

There is the deep desire to experience respect and, hopefully, to give it in return. There is the sense of support for the life challenges that we all face. Then there are the times that just childish silliness happens – like the guys at the counter decide that they want to make one person’s life a challenge by hiding a piece of fish in his wastebasket to see if it will stink up his office.

Or it’s a slow afternoon at the sales counter and so one of the sales staff sneaks up on another salesperson deeply engrossed in his work, and scares the heck out of him. Ah yes – we live on such a high plane!

We need to remember that we are human beings. We build who we are day by day – by day. We need to be compassionate with our failings, seeing those failings as teachers pointing the way to where the work needs to be done – and then maybe done, again – and again.

We need to reflect on our daily lives and understand them to be replete with the goodness of God - if we can just find God underneath or in the midst of the flurry of faxes and messages and phone calls. We need to be aware that God cares how we do our work and that the very ordinariness of our day has the potential to be loaded with lessons in humility, loyalty, caring, joyfulness, listening, patience, integrity, and on and on it goes.

One of my favorite quotes that I will leave with you here goes something like this: “The fastest way for a tadpole to become a frog is to live loyally – each day – as a tadpole.”

So, kick the can of your frustration, let out the steam, and get back to the joy and the job of living the gift of your life in the fullness of today’s light, I’m sure going to do so!

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