Priorities
My wife works in a therapeutic environment. Every morning, the staff gathers for a team meeting that always concludes with a sharing of feelings. During this time, each person lets everyone else know how they're feeling and makes a request for any specific support they might need throughout the day. Recently, one of the staff took a week-long vacation, during which she stayed home with her three children who had a five-day break from school. The day she returned to work, she told everyone what a hectic, chaotic week she had just experienced. She said, "But when I walked into this building and I saw how beautiful and tidy everything is, heard the soothing music playing, and smelled the scent of the aroma therapy machine, I said to myself, 'Ah…I'm finally home again.'" The rest of the staff, with the exception of my wife, nodded their heads and muttered their assent.
When Mrs. Happy came home that day, she told me about her coworker's sentiment with incredulity, and of the others' reactions with a shock that bordered on horror. When your place of work provides a haven from your home, she said, your home is seriously screwed up. I have to agree. I'm afraid, though, that it's all too common.
There's probably a technical psychological/sociological explanation for this, but I know that when people feel unloved and/or powerless at home they sometimes compensate by throwing all their energy into work. When a man feels ineffective as a husband and father, he often dedicates himself to being an excellent employee. His job becomes the most important thing in his life. I thought that phenomenon was specific to men, but in light of my wife's experience with her coworkers, I guess not.
The irony, I think, is that someone with a strong family makes a better employee—happier, healthier, more content, more sympathetic, and having a better perspective on things. When priorities are in order—God, family, country, job—life is just so much better.
