I have a friend who works for an international law firm. He told me once that he had some clients in Spain. When he scheduled calls to them, he had to work around their afternoon siesta. The siesta is a Spanish cultural norm. Spanish workers typically eat the biggest meal of the day at noontime, and the climate is hot. Thus it makes perfect sense for them to take a nap at mid-afternoon and focus on work early in the morning and later in the day.
If you could wave your magic wand and change one thing about American culture, what would you change?
I have spoken against American culture in a couple of these posts on my work life. If it were my wand, we would have a prayer siesta at some point in each work day. An hour where it was culturally taboo to make calls or carry out work. An hour where every worker could experience enough quiet that he or she could see to their spiritual health in whatever fashion they saw fit.
If we want to start an hour earlier or finish an hour later in order to keep the same numbers of hours in the work day, I’m fine with that. But I emphasize that the prayer siesta must come in the work day. The interruption must be used to make it culturally clear that our spiritual well being is more important that our financial or career well being.
I would probably opt for mid morning or just before lunch.
Think of yourself within this proposed cultural norm. How would you be different today if the culture made it clear through this prayer siesta that your relationship with God was more important than any other relationship in your life?
How would this practice of spiritual mindfulness within the work day change who you are, both as a person and as a worker?
How would it change the country?
Could it ever come to be?
If the idea resonates with you, can you make it true, at least for yourself?