Week 37- Feeling Cranky and Maya Angelou

I had another article published this week on Maya Angelou. It's actually getting a lot of hits, but I'm not very satisfied with it myself. It was an assignment I picked up for an employee that left, and it ended up feeling neither well-written nor inspired. It's not awful, it's just not something I feel a lot of pride in. Which is a pity, since Maya Angelou was such a fantastically gifted writer. Ah well, some styles of writing come more naturally than others, I guess.

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I've been out sick most of the week, which is a bummer. It's good I stayed home and took care of myself though. I thought maybe I could go in and tough it out, but after reading my e-mails I was glad I was home. I keep getting e-mails from whiny managers and being sick makes me WAY too cranky to deal with whiny adults. I feel like adding an addendum to all my e-mails that says "No whining." That's probably not a very professional or loving-missionary kind of thing to say, but it's still how I feel this week.

When a kid is whiny it's annoying, but when an adult is whiny you want to smack them over the head with a "how to be a grown-up" manual. Just because they have a problem doesn't mean a) I know how to fix it, or b) it is my job to fix it. I would write a "How to be a manager" manual that explains exactly where to go for these things, but it would probably turn out really rude.

I'm mostly just cranky because I told someone to call the help line a few days ago (after a week of fussing about a request that they submitted way too late), and they kept pestering me. It turns out they didn't know what the help line was, so they simply chose to ignore that part of my response until today, when I suggested it again and they asked what it was. It was very good we were an internet apart, because my face would have definitely given away my annoyance. Again--not very missionary-like. So I am praying for help loving managers again. Who knew that would be such a big part of my mission?

So what did I accomplish in this odd week?

• Adapting a presentation for the Managing Director's Speech
• Bishop Clearances
• A new spreadsheet
• Scheduling meetings
• Updating employee info
• Hiring a volunteer and getting them an e-mail
• Sending more interpreter names for processing
• Responding to a blue-whale load of e-mails with an almost blue-whale amount of patience

That's pretty much all I have to say about this week. Hopefully next week's post will be more spiritually uplifting...

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I do have a Mormon Message I wanted to share with you this week. I have always loved Queen Esther. In part, yes, because she is one of the few girls who get their own story in the scriptures, but I have grown to love her for so much more than that. Esther was brave. She did difficult things and had faith that the Lord would guide her. She trusted that His way was better than her way.

I worry about everything. I want to be in control and know what the future will hold. I want everything to be perfect and comfortable. I want to do things my way, on my own strength. But life is not comfortable or certain. So I am working on building the kind of courage Esther had, to go forward with faith in the Lord, not knowing what the future holds for me. Even more, I want to be able to follow the Lord joyfully, not resentfully.  I struggle to have the courage to let go of control and give him the reins, but I really do believe that we are happier when we follow the Lord's plan for us.