May's Spirit At Work Breakfast with Leonard Lang Thursday, May 9th, 2002

Having been on a long quest to find meaning in my work, I jumped at the opportunity to attend the St Joan of Arc “Spirit at Work Breakfast”. I started to question my hasty enthusiasm when my alarm went off that morning, but I kept telling myself it would be a small price to pay. Being relatively new to the St Joan of Arc community, I had not had the opportunity to get to know parishioners beyond seeing friendly faces at mass. I was hoping this event would have the same warmth and welcoming feeling I had grown to look forward to on Sundays. Walking through the doors leading into “Hospitality Hall”, I immediately felt welcomed by Tom Smith-Myott and Dave Culver. Being there promptly at 7:00 was an apparent “Newby” behavior that Tom and Dave were kind enough to point out to me. It wasn’t long before a few other “Newbies” arrived and then the “Regulars” filtered in. I was impressed with the flow of this event as there was time to network with others, yet the program stayed on task with just the right amount of time for everything on the agenda.

As the tables filled in, Tom Smith-Myott took that as his cue to do the opening introduction. It was clear to me from Tom’s introduction of Leonard Lang Ph.D., that this was a man who knew how to help people discover their life passions. His repertoire of programs include: “Spirituality at Work”, “Embracing Your Lifework” and “The Dance of Leadership.” He has worked with businesses, schools and churches. Leonard is not only an educator but a writer with works published in national literary magazines. I am looking forward to the release of Leonard’s book “Guide to Life Work” later this summer.

It was some of the first words Leonard spoke that captured my attention and pulled me in for the entire event. He introduced us to an Italian phrase, “Cos fai di belle?” which translates to “What do you make of beauty”? This was an effective way to make the point that this presentation was not only about focusing on finding meaning in our work for ourselves but also how we could give something back to the world from our “life work”. From that point through the next hour and a half, time flew by as Leonard spoke of vision and vocation, inner and outer motivators, and bringing one’s “whole self” to work.

Mary Graf lives in the neighborhood with her husband Jay and enjoys outdoor activities. Mary is relatively new to St Joan and looks forward to becoming more active in the St Joan of Arc community.

Leonard also covered ways in which we can make a difference in our work environment by “what we do, how we do it and what we make or create.” The program ended with exploring “how we get to vision” and “mind mapping”. We had an opportunity to share our “mind maps” with a partner, which gave many of us great new insights into some of our passions.

By the time 9:00 arrived, I knew that getting up early for this gift of knowledge and self discovery was no price at all. As I left this event, I was amazed at what was accomplished in two hours and felt motivated to go into my job with a new attitude that I could make a something of beauty.