I spent 13 years in the Discalced Carmelite monastic order, which traces its origins to hermits living on Mt. Carmel in the 13th century. As is the case with most religious orders, the Discalced Carmelites prayed together at least six times a day on a regular schedule, using Latin names for the hours. These were also known as Canonical hours, because they have been used by all orders in the Roman Catholic Church for many centuries.

As our Muslim friends have so ably demonstrated, prayer can also provide the framework for secular life, including busy workdays. Inspired by what I learned in the monastery and from the example of Muslims, I adapted the canonical hours to my spiritual practices.

Here is the structure of ancient and universal canonical hours:

6:00 AM Lauds (Morning Prayer): The morning begins with praise.

9:00 AM Terce (The Third Hour):The community pauses in its work to remember God.

12:00 PM Sext (The Sixth Hour): The community prays before the noon meal.

3:00 PM None (The Ninth Hour): Mid afternoon prayer.

6:00 PM Vespers (Evening Prayer): Praise and thanksgiving as the day ends.

Bedtime Compline: The community prepares for sleep in peace.

Prayer Can Provide a Framework For Divine Order in Today’s Fast-Paced Secular Lives

Following the intent and inspiration of the canonical hours, here is my version of prayers for a contemporary workday:

As I rise I set my intention for the day. I will live fully in peace and with compassion.

As I begin my work, I bless my space and my tools. I pray that all my work today contribute to the good of all those I meet and brings me the resources I need for my life.

I pause for lunch and recall to mind the presence of the divine. I nurture myself with material and spiritual food.

During an afternoon break, I rededicate myself to doing well by doing good.

As I prepare for the evening, I give thanks for events of the day.

As I prepare for bed, I reflect on my actions of the day and their alignment with my true nature.

When I was in the religious order, I followed these prayers every day without fail. It’s not so easy to remember to stop for prayer in the contemporary day, but it’s definitely doable and rewarding. When I first adapted the hours, I wrote prayers and quotes on file cards that I could carry with me throughout the day. They helped me focus and get grounded at those times when I wished to pray and meditate.

I am now returning to this prayer practice, using as a mantra the Hebrew word for peace, which is “shalom.” This means to pause from work for a few minutes, breathe in on the first syllable, “shal” and breathe out on the “om.” I repeat the practice several times, then center into silence.

How Can You Build Your Workday Around Prayer ?

What are your thoughts?

How do you weave moments of prayer into your work day?

What can you learn from the prayer life of religious orders?

We welcome your thoughts and questions.

Many blessings to you,

John Sullivan

John Sullivan was resource director of the first major directory of spirituality and work resources, published by Spirit of Health! In 1995. With his wife Pat, he is the co-founder of the Spirit and Work Resource Center, www.spiritandworkresourcecenter.com.

Over the years, I’ve integrated many spiritual practices into my life and work: meditating, taking a moment of silence, being grateful, walking, visualizing, spending time in nature, or journaling. Some of these practices I learned from others; some I invented or adapted. All have led to rich and sometimes surprising insights for work, money and the rest of life — provided they fit my life, not some idealized notion of what the spiritual life ought to be.

The best practices are those that work for us — whether or not they are normally defined as “spiritual.”

If you’re like me, you have to live your spiritual life in the midst of your ordinary real life, not a monastery. I really look forward to my early morning walk with my dog, and to my practices of finding some quiet moments during the day (yes, during work – particularly when I can step outdoors and go for a brisk walk), some free space for dreaming when I ride the subway, spiritual reading at night, or to our family evening meal together. Each practice helps ground me in my fast paced world, and provides some calm, solace and perspective. I am disappointed when I need to skip any of them.

Another practice is gratitude. I find the more I practice gratitude for the big events, the more I’m also grateful for the little things (the subway arrives just as I do), and also not only what happened (I finished my report on time), but what didn’t happen (my flight arrived safely). Each of these gives me a sense of calm, acceptance, and inner peace.

If we just do a spiritual practice because we “should,” it probably won’t work. True practices aren’t requirements, but life-enhancing tools. Yet, it’s too easy to treat them like yet another thing we are “supposed” to do, and find ourselves outwardly agreeing but inwardly resisting. When we do, the practices probably won’t happen.

I often hear the comments “I’m too busy to exercise” or “I don’t have time for a practice.” I’ve found it’s important not to just remind myself to make sure I have time for practice, but to also affirm why this is so.

We can always find time for what is important to us. I have learned as a mother that if I don’t take care of myself, then I have less to give my children and husband. If I don’t take care of my body and nurture my soul, I can feel grumpy, tired, unhealthy, and agitated, which affects my work, my relationships and my attitude. I have less to offer at work, with friends, and with family. Yes, practices are good for our life; when I remember the good in the practices, I am more likely to embrace them.

It’s amazing how powerful just a change of attitude can have.

When I began working at the World Affairs Council many years ago, the hours were long and I found myself grouchy. Much as the purpose of the Council was aligned with my own, I was so focused on the high pressure of the situation that I lost the joy of the work. I became frustrated that I wasn’t being paid enough to work such long hours, and I was hungry and tired each night when I went home. About a month later someone said to me, “You are so lucky to get paid to be at these amazing programs that most people have to pay to go to. You have one of the best international positions in the Bay Area!”

I went home and thought about it and realized two things were true: I really did enjoy my work so I needed to shift my attitude from what wasn’t working to what was working. I also needed to take better care of myself at work. I decided to eat more for lunch, and have a healthy snack in the afternoon. From that moment onwards I began to love my job, blossomed in it, made many connections, and grew in many ways. The only thing that I changed was my attitude, but that made all the difference.

I’ve learned about many practices from many people.

1. Start staff meetings with a moment of silence.
2. Decorate our work spaces with items that matter to us, and create our own workplace altars.
3. Take a day off periodically for nurture and renewal.
4. Initiate a conversation with colleagues about what spirit at work means to each person and how to live it at work (there are many resources for this conversation).
5. Review your company mission statements, policies and procedures to ensure they include a triple bottom line of focusing on people, planet, and profits.
6. Create an evolving mission statement employees are proud to live by.
7. When possible, hold at least some meetings outdoors.
8. Encourage creativity, openness and honesty.

What practice do you have that works for you?

If none, what draws you from the list above? Am you willing to try it?
If you have other practices that work for you, we’d love to hear them.

Kimberly Weichel

Kimberly Weichel is a social pioneer, educator, author and specialist in global communications, leadership and peacebuilding. She is co-author of “Healing the Heart of the World” and director of the Institute for Peacebuilding. www.kimweichel.org.

But greed is just one variety of fraud, waste and abuse that have long been rampant in our world. All are supported by a culture that makes it equally hard to confront wrong-doing or to envision a culture based on honesty, sustainability, and compassion.

A participant in a seminar I taught several years ago on “Bottom Line: Integrity” said that if he never wasted any organizational resources such as time or supplies, he might stand out like a sore thumb. Another remembered the pain of being branded a “curve buster” or “teacher’s pet” when she had based her actions not on peer norms but on her deeper values. A third affirmed that by acting on our values, we could be role models.

It’s not easy to confront another’s wrongdoing, and it’s not easy to listen when someone dares say there’s something off with one of our actions or pet projects. But without honest feedback, organizations become like dysfunctional families who are run by those with the least capacity for or commitment to wise leadership.

Needed: Road Markers to Keep Our Work and Business in Integrity

My dad, the late William McHenry, said we are all called to guide each other out of dangerous ethical fogs by being like white lines on curvy mountain roads that can keep us from crashing into each other, provided we slow down enough to see those lines and are humble enough to heed them.

The problem, says whistleblower expert Don Soeken is that, though we are taught to tell the truth and act ethically, we rarely are taught how. Instead we are warned not to be “tattlers” or “snitches” and we’re overwhelmed with stories about how integrity is a poor career move.

Hard as it is to confront wrongdoing in self and others, it’s often harder to meet our own magnificent capacity for goodness and creativity. With each new hope comes the possibility of hurt should the hope not turn into reality. With each new creative possibility comes the danger that we will be less satisfied with the status quo or more threatening to those who are committed to a particular way of seeing things.

How can we build a culture based in integrity?

While I can’t pretend to have all the answers (except when I’m grandiose, which is way out of integrity), I do offer these practical starting points that hopefully will become common habits:

1. We could tell the truth more. Whether we need to blow a whistle against fraud, waste and abuse at work or whether we need to take on the even scarier work of reminding each other how magnificent we can be, we could dare speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. Even when the truth is, “I’m scared” or “I haven’t the foggiest idea how to do what needs to be done.”

2.  We could dare to dream wishfully about what a culture of integrity would look like and how it would act, even though we know right now neither the final content of the dream or how it might possibility be realized. All great movements, like the civil rights movement, started with wishful thinking. Strategy came later, and the dream kept evolving, which called forth more creative strategy.

3. We could take each  integrity challenge as an opportunity to grow, to learn and to serve better ourselves and others. One gift of the current economic mess is a growing dialogue on the nature of integrity and how much it matters to us. If that dialogue is supported, it can come up with far better answers than any expert or politician could.

4. We could go dare to be mentally and emotionally empty more. As the Buddhist teacher Suzuki reminds us, our beginner’s mind can always see new aspects to old challenges. The Christian teacher St. John of the Cross reminds us that sometimes the faint light of a new vision can only be seen when we step away from the light of the status quo.

5. We could go through a ritual of honesty and transformation together. A great model is the Jewish New Year and succeeding the holidays that follow it. First, we eat apples and sweet honey and recall the blessings of what has passed and what is now. Next, we empty our mental and emotional pockets of all the beliefs and thoughts that keep us fully present to ourselves and others. We do our best to heal relationships and make clean those aspects of our lives that are off base.

The Jewish high holy day of Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, is a time of prayerful fasting, of laying open one’s soul before the Creator. It is followed soon after by the harvest festival of Sukkot, which honors the playful and creative child and by Simchat Torah, which celebrates the holy law as the framework for community. In some synagogues, the Torah (the first five books of the Bible) is danced throughout the community.

As a non-Jew, I’m awed by these ceremonies and what they represent. What kind of a culture could we build together if we honored what is already good and if we also dared be open to seeing our worst faults? What kind of culture could we have if we celebrated and valued those laws and mores that support a culture of integrity?

An affirmative prayer to consider: I choose to see clearly what is on or off integrity in my own life and work. I gratefully accept inspiration from any source in order to clarify my sight and to give me new perspectives. I welcome clarity that will help me discern when and how I am called to act with integrity, and when I am called to wait for further guidance.

As always, many blessings to you,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

Never has it been more obvious that real life can’t be broken into categories such as work, life, money, children or fun. Everything important always happens right when we’re smack dab in the middle of seeming contradictory challenges. How to do the tasks that need to be done versus the work our soul calls us to? How to find time to mourn and reflect in the midst of work that needs to be done and life that needs to be lived right now? How to follow one calling, complete one task, when there are dozens or hundreds or thousands to be done?

Organized as Our Datebooks and Files May Be, Only Spirit Can Provide True Order

Guided by spirit, it becomes more clear what’s essential and what is not, what’s ours to do and what is not. Anchored in spirit while doing one task, we see more clearly how to handle another. Because spirit takes us into the essence where such realities as work, money and the rest of life organically interact, we find that working well on any task enhances the others.

This means that the same consciousness that helps us deal gracefully with a nasty boss can also help us end the workday with more time and energy for family. While working out the intricacies of a due diligence document, we’re in an orderly state that helps grief or old pains heal, that makes personal issues fit better together.

Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Stay Focused and On Track …

Remember the Little Engine That Could? By focusing on her calling, she overcame obstacles that bigger, shinier engines avoided. Yes, a big part of her success was her internal motivation and her constant self talk, “I think I can,” but an equally big part of it was sticking on track.

I’m one of these people who always has a problem staying on track. I could, for instance, turn out 47 blog posts in a few weeks and none for months. Discipline for me requires not just getting past the resistant part that just won’t do what anyone tells me to do — even me. Worse, I’ve got to say no to those voices that say before I post again, I’ve got to create the perfect explanation for why I stopped so long, the perfect entrée back into the stream, the perfect apology, the perfect whatever.

… and Sometimes Spirit Calls Us to Create a New Track, or Return to Our Old Track with Renewed Insight.

My favorite people have always been people who have created new tracks, like attorney Kim Wright,  who was mentioned in the last post. Kim is so loaded with contagious excitement about the lawyers, judges and law students she knows who are recreating the field of law that I could listen to her all day. Fortunately, she doesn’t have time to just tell stories to one person all day. She’s such a great listener and her laugh is so hearty, that after a few minutes on the phone with her, my own dilemma soon became clearer.

Sometimes the answer to life’s challenges is kind of like the Nike slogan, “Just do it.” Just sit by the computer, and start without apology. Just pick up where you left off without feeling like you have to make it a big return of the prodigal son production. Just keep doing the ordinary, nitty gritty real work of every day and let the deeper wisdom flow as it goes.

In my case, a quick coda. My favorite people, I realize, include those who have never moved far away from the home where they were born, who live awesome lives in such ordinary titles as teacher or factory workers. My favorite views are not just the stunning sweep of the Shenandoah Valley from a foothill of the Massanutten mountain where longtime friends now live, but also the loquat tree outside my office window that I see every day. My favorite tasks include not just writing something new or creating something new, but also seeing old things in a new way.

It’s all rich, all blessed, including the ability to be with a friend as she lay dying.

There are Many Ways Meaning Can Enhance All Your Bottom Lines

My book, Work with Meaning, Work with Joy: Bringing Your Spirit to Any Job, came out of months of workday hell on many levels: working in a high pressure corporate law firm during three downsizings, having to do a lot of overtime because my husband was out of work, three family members on the other side of the country were dying, and feeling my own entrepreneurial dreams go further away every day.

Fortunately, I had learned from earlier challenges the power of meaning, particularly from the works of Viktor Frankl, author of Man’s Search for Meaning. If he could find life-saving meaning in the midst of Auschwitz, surely I could find meaning at a safe workplace that I could leave when the workday was over.

Inspired by Frankl, I learned four key principles that can be applied to any tough situation:

• Tasks that are perceived as meaningful get done more exuberantly and effectively and therefore less expensively.
• Work that is perceived as meaningful is less stressful, which leads to less burnout, fewer sick days, less turnover, and higher productivity.
• The clearer our sense of meaning and purpose, the more resilient we can be in hard times. This can lead to higher productivity and ingenuity.
• Guided by our sense of meaning and purpose, we can more clearly see what’s essential to do and what is not. That saves a lot of time, money and energy.

Many People Benefit from Meaning in Work and Money Matters, But Few Are Willing to Talk About Its Power

For example, many business executives tout the benefits of running. After a run, they admit, they are much more efficient and relaxed, but few know or talk openly about the benefits of meditation, which could reconnect them with the source of ultimate meaning and wisdom.

One thing that makes meaning so powerful is that when we are connected to something truly meaningful, we are connected to something much bigger than ourselves, including God. Yet meaning also anchors us in what is most unique and true to ourselves.

My husband John instantly comes more alive when he experiences or shares his love of Satchmo, Native American history, Latin and Gregorian chant. I’m immediately more connected to meaning when I look at the clouds, sing old hymns, or listen to classical music. Both of us experience meaning with our cat, in church, in meditation, with friends or family, or in service.

If Lawyers Can Profit By Working with Meaning, Anyone Can

Things felt so un-spirited and painful in the mid-90′s at the job I described above that I reached out through the internet and friends for help. Judi Neal, now director of the Walton Center in Faith and Spirituality in the Workplace at the University of Arkansas,  connected me to Steven Keeva, then an editor for the Journal of the American Bar Association. Steve was working on what I still think is the greatest book on spirit and work, Transforming Practices: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in the Legal Life. (This book, filled with practical applications of spiritual practices in legal practice, is being re-published within the year.)

Steve connected me to Kim Wright, who refused to be just another unhappy lawyer. Her research and networking led her to create Cutting Edge Law,  where you can connect with many people and organizations who promote openly contemplative practices and spirituality in law.

Cutting Edge Law also has a You-Tube channel of videos with people who have been working to bring in more meaning to law, including my own interview on spirituality and work in law and all professions.

It’s been really exciting for me not just to have learned to find meaning in legal work — which led to my new work in helping bring more meaning and joy to all work. It’s also exciting to be a part of and to report this growing movement to bring more heart and soul to law. Here’s one of my favorite articles on the topics.

Where do you now find meaning in your work, finances and other challenges?

What practices help you connect more to what’s meaningful?

I dare you to share your thoughts with others and help increase the power of meaning in everyday life.

As always, many blessings,
Pat McHenry Sullivan

1. What hurts?
2. What would it look like to be whole again?
3. What would it take to be whole again?
4. What can I learn from this challenge?
5. What allies and resources are available?
6. How am I called to serve?

Turning Challenges into Opportunity Can Be a Powerful Exercise in Practical Spirituality

Questions 1, 2 and 3 clarify current reality. They help you generate a new vision and the creativity you need to make it real. Question 4 opens all your mental resources and anchors your power of intention. Questions 5 and 6 connect you to a source much greater than yourself.

A friend I’ll call Joe first thought his answer to question 1 was only, “I get a pounding headache at work.” After meditation on the question, he discovered, “My worst headaches come when I am working with a boss who reminds me of the worst aspects of my father.” Further reflection showed him exactly how his body tensed in response to stress. He also wondered if his habit of skipping lunch when he felt pressured for time might be part of the problem.

All this changed Joe’s original answer to question 2 from “I just want the headaches to go away,” to “I envision responding to stressful situations with an alert mind, pain-free body, and peaceful heart.”

Reflection on questions 3 and 4 inspired Joe to deal with his issues around his father, not project them onto the boss. At the same time, he knew he also had to practice better boundaries and personal caretaking.

Question 5 led to an intuitive flash: “Talk with my friend Betty (a nurse).” She taught Joe that whenever he skipped lunch, he depleted the amount of blood sugar his brain and body need to work well. Headaches are a common side effect of low blood sugar.

Soon Joe’s workday headaches were gone and the problems with the boss were eased. His performance improved, and so did his relationship with his boss.

Instead of going home from work exhausted or dulled by painkillers, he went home with a spring in his step and more time to be with his family. He eventually got a better job with a more appreciative boss.

Question 6 led Joe to the simple conclusion that by taking better care of himself and giving his best to any task, he was best able to work compassionately and purposefully. He used some of his increased time and energy for fun with friends and family and some for increased service to the community.

Every spiritual tradition is loaded with practical spiritual wisdom.

My all-time favorite wisdom teacher is Brother Lawrence, a 17th century Catholic monk who spoke of practicing the presence of God. Whether you are sweeping the floor, making an omelet or working with today’s high-tech equipment, do everything gratefully, as if it were for God. Bring your full self to the task, right here, right now.

I’m often stunned at how powerful this simple practice can be. Once my husband and I were helping his mother rake leaves. It seemed utterly natural to give thanks for the opportunity to be with this wonderful woman and pray for her continued health and safety while we worked.

Sometimes we laughed and joked; other times we were silent enough to hear leaves being chased across the pavement by our brooms. This is the kind of joy that can be so easily missed when we treat tasks just as something to be done, not as an experience of service with the potential for joy. Just remembering the joy of that morning makes my heart sing again.

That joy led to three more questions:

1. What joys do I now feel around work and money?
2. How can this joy benefit me and others?
3. How can I learn and grow by expanding the blessings in my life right now?

As always, many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

This post was adapted from an article I wrote several years ago for my column on practical spirituality that ran for about a year on myprimetime.com.

If love is one of the most powerful forces for good in the universe, then loving money must also be a powerful force for good.

Consider just the loving aspects of patience and kindness. Loving a child with patience and kindness includes nurturing not just his creative spirit and self worth, but also her respect for the boundaries of others. Loving a friend or spouse means accepting their imperfections and helping to meet their needs with joy, but not allowing abuse from them.

When I truly love money, I can’t do un-loving things to it, like put it on a pedestal or demand that it make me feel better about myself. Nor can I allow it to hold me or my values in bondage.

Having patience with money means no more investments or credit cards where I’m too busy to understand the terms. It means foregoing the heady excitement and sense of entitlement like I had in the 90′s when I watched my 401 (k)’s “worth” grow so fast, than I became enraged when it dropped to less than a 15% return, then lost money.

Loving money also means discerning the impact of my earning and spending, even when it costs more to support fair trade than to buy cheap stuff from companies that exploit the land or people. It means giving up the illusion that I am somehow more spiritual than those who have more money and admitting that underneath this illusion are some pretty unspiritual things like arrogance or fear. It means taking on more of the scary tasks of money-making, particularly marketing and selling, with patience and kindness.

And it means being patience and kind with all the parts of me that are not patient or kind around money, work and everything else– like the parts of me that are in a hurry to get this post done and the parts of me that resist doing it and the parts that are so into perfection that I can never get anything done.

Imagine loving money with patience and kindness as a personal and corporate strategy.

That’s actually happening way more than is reported, even when the words “patience” or “kindness” aren’t used. Many examples can be found in the spirit and work movement, the trends towards socially responsible businesses and investing, and the slow money movement.

Money itself is experiencing an extreme makeover through the conscious capitalism movement. Patricia Aburdene, author of Megatrends 2010: The Rise of Conscious Capitalism reported in the most recent edition of Enlighten Next Magazine  that half the Fortune 500 companies actually already practice at least a little conscious capitalism. She reports how these companies have turned away from “the worship of profits while ignoring the long-term costs of earning them” to business that “embraces all its stakeholders – investors, customers, communities, employees, and the environment.”

Profit is alive and well in conscious capitalism, and the bottom line of conscious capitalists benefit greatly from increased customer and employee loyalties. One of the things that’s needed for the benefits of conscious capitalism to become more popular is for it to be reported more and for a new standard helps us assess the material value of such values as compassion and long-term thinking.

That’s a subject we touched on here several months ago, in a call to let go our obsession with the latest burps of the Dow and instead focus on a more long-term Tao (meaning way or path to wisdom, among other things) that takes care of the immediate needs and the future, while leaving plenty of good things for generations to come.

What’s your vision for how your relationship with money could be transformed with patience and kindness?

What thoughts stir about the true love of money when you read and meditate on 1 Corinthians 13?

What other sacred texts from any faith, poetry or quotes inspire true love of money for you?

What practices help you truly love any aspect of your relationship to money?

As always, your thoughts and comments are welcome. Many blessings, Pat McHenry Sullivan

There’s a world of spiritual practices just right for your workday. Pick any one of them and practice it!

I recently asked my network of clients, colleagues and friends: “What spiritual practice is in your business toolkit?”

Here are some of the spiritual practices business people like you rely on. Some you may be familiar with and even use, others will be new to you. I encourage you to play with these practices to enhance your work performance and make your life more rewarding and fun. Meditating

• Observing
• Spiritual Reading
• Mentoring
• Praying
• Fasting
• Being Grateful
• Smiling
• Trusting Your Intuition
• Affirming
• Refraining from Judgment
• Deep Breathing
• Walking a Labyrinth
• Staying Present
• Practicing Yoga
• Journaling
• Spending Time in Nature
• Visualizing
• Dreaming
• Clearing Clutter
• Being Silent

At times of change and uncertainty, it’s reassuring to follow a practice. Please feel free to contact me with questions or comments about your own practices.

Namaste,

Tricia Molloy

Tricia Molloy is the author of Divine Wisdom at Work: 10 Universal Principles for Enlightened Entrepreneurs. She offers Working with Wisdom programs, like “CRAVE Your Goals!” to empower employees to be more positive, focused and productive. Learn more and sign up for her free e-newsletter for valuable information and inspiration at http://www.triciamolloy.com/

Note from Pat Sullivan, the Spiritworkandmoney.com blogger: Please comment to this post in this blog. Simply click on the word “comments” that’s preceded from a number at the lower right of this post.

What are your favorite practices?

Which would you like to know more about in future posts?

What new ideas come to you by playing with and praying over this list?

True joy is an amazingly unselfish spiritual gift. Joy begets a light heart, plenty of energy, resourcefulness, and the longing to help others find joy. Thanks to the spirit and work movement, I’ve thoroughly learned how to distill joy out of any task, even when reality also includes sorrow, grief or other honest emotions.

Now, thanks to the new movie “Julie and Julia”, my full joy is back in cooking, eating, and sharing food with others. That may not be my paid work, but it sure affects all my paid work and dealings with money. Plus, I’ve got a whole new pair of role models for persisting in any vision around work and money.

Never Underestimate the Power of a Role Model for Any Challenge

In case you missed it, “Julie and Julia” refers to a hot new movie starring Meryl Streep and Amy Adams. Julie is Julie Powell, who recuperated from the daily drudge of an often thankless job by cooking her heart out after work.

Julia Child is the legendary author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, which for 50 years has brought a lot more joy into many American kitchens through her book and her PBS tv shows.

Both women sought purpose; both found it around food. Julie’s decision to cook her way through all 524 recipes in Julia’s cookbook and blog about it became a lively journey that intertwines her story and Julia’s. Like any great story, its essence is about all the things the characters learn and the new gifts they wrestle out of themselves in the process of living zestfully. Then there is the essence we can create for ourselves as we allow the story to become an ingredient in our lives.

“Julie and Julia” are loaded with lessons for the kitchen of any soul:

1.    Start with what you love. Whether looking for a new career or an answer to a puzzling problem, start with what you care about most, and give it love all the way. Do it with gusto, not drudgery, even when the task itself is difficult.

2.    Know and stay true to  your own standards. Somewhere inside, you know what really matters to you. Consider the wisdom and perspective of others and let them guide you, not rule you.

3.     Work with allies, not alone. Be an ally to others and find all the family, friends, and other companions you need to cheer you on, provide feedback, keep you honest, call out the best in you, and celebrate or cry with you. And when you’re being unkind in any way to those allies, fess up!

4.   Don’t limit your allies to people you encounter in the flesh. Julie met Julia only through her writings, her cookbooks and her TV shows. Yet, “without you here,” wrote Julie, “I would be a different persons — a smaller, a sadder, a more frightened person.”

5.   Don’t look for perfection in yourself, your allies and friends, your role models. Julie described Julia as a flawed woman of enormous energy and a great teacher who was funny, generous, and confident. … That’s what I love about her – she inspired because she was a woman, not a saint.”

6. Follow “the thirst to keep finding out, the openness to experience that makes life worth living. … [be willing to dive] into the next possible disaster…”

Dealing with food is a huge part of our lives and work — paid or unpaid. If God hadn’t meant us to enjoy it, why are there so many good things to eat?

The movie took me back to the joy of being in the kitchen with my mother, who used recipes primarily as a springboard for her own creativity. During our 13 years together she taught me to be fearless in the kitchen. I can only imagine what she could have done if had she lived past 1956, when the ethnic food explosion and cooking shows like Julia Child’s came into being.

I came out of “Julie and Julia” convinced that the only way I’ll deal with my own food-related issues is not just to cut the carbs and the wrong fats, but also to savor every morsel. After all, food that is savored digests better. Food that is digested sends out signals of enough and fills the body with more energy for a workout.

There are so many more food issues to explore around money and work, like the whole issues of organic and free-range versus factory-grown and depleted soil, and why the concept of fair trade is growing. Because these matter so much to me, I welcome your insights around them them.

But right now, whatever’s on your plate literally or figuratively, Bon Appetit!

As always, many blessings and come again real soon,

Pat McHenry Sullivan

I really want that right now, not just around the ever-present health care financing issue, but around everything else that’s dominating the news today, like how hard it is for many of us to make a living right now. Like how many people we know are stuck in painful jobs they hate but don’t dare leave. Or for those of us who are entrepreneurs, where the next clients are coming from in a time when so many are still cutting back.

Healthcare financing and all our other money or work issues could benefit from some individual and collective deep breaths.

Won’t you breathe with me right now? Just take one breath, then another, and feel your energy rising. As you breathe, listen to the silence. Trust that you’ve got something worth saying, starting with yourself, so make that commitment to hear yourself.

Listen more than speak to yourself. Listen past your own assumptions and beliefs and pet projects into the stillness of your own heart. And when you are ready, share what’s true for you with another.

One thing I know for sure is that whenever two or more of us come together long enough to really see each other, to really listen to each other, we are wiser. Confusion becomes clarity. Enmity becomes dialogue, then collaboration. Money wasted, lives harmed turned into money used well for the best of human and earthly life.

It’s not easy to find money or work wisdom in a noisy, divisive world.

Even in my quiet office with candles burning, it’s hard to put aside all sorts of ideas and assumptions so I can be present to a deeper Presence. Even with years of practice in hearing what really matters most to others and myself around spirit, work and money, it’s hard to hear the one thing I need to hear right here, right now.

The wisdom I find in the silence calls me down from my high horse and holds a mirror to truths I’d rather evade. It calls me to say or do things I’d not otherwise dream or dare, things that risk ridicule or failure or even scarier, a hope and awe that make me tremble

And so, being human, I often run from the silence, and I bet you do, too.That’s why it always helps to have companions on the journey of dealing with what matters, whether on the mundane or spiritual level.

The world is filled with tips and resources for finding wisdom for money, work and other spiritual or mundane issues.

As a kid, I loved watching my mother and her best friend share everything from recipes to laughs to prayers to tips on sewing and how to handle us kids. As a business plan writer and teacher, I love sharing resources and ideas for how to turn a dream into thriving reality. As a writer and speaker in the field of spirit and work, I’m passionate about sharing tips and resources from all the world’s faiths for all types of work.

Here are some favorites you may try:

Go to the place where you feel most attuned to your wisdom source. For most people that’s the bathroom (no.1 according to a survey of business executives, especially the shower), a place of worship (not necessarily your own religion) or nature. If you can’t actually go to your wisdom place, go there virtually. (www.workwithmeaningandjoy.com/ww_-_retreat.pdf)

If you are under time pressure or are uncomfortable with meditation, run or do whatever else that helps you get your body, mind and spirit into a non-competitive zone. Many lawyers I know find that answers that eluded them during hard thinking come easily on the run.

Work off your anger or frustration safely, like our grandparents did while chopping wood or beating rugs over the clothesline. Some friends and I one had a great time working off some political fury by smashing yard-sale chipped pottery against a concrete wall. By the time we had carefully swept up the shards, we had a lot more energy that we could focus positively.

Tomorrow, by request, some tips from writers and speakers about how to get your most meaningful points across in a noisy, crowded world.

As always, many blessings. And come back again real soon,
Pat McHenry Sullivan