Simple beauty at work - A gift of faith on Day 23

The give: A new, matched set of dishes, flatware, and glasses to the team in my office suite; even though we may all be gone by May.

Like many workgroups these days, ours is facing its share of challenges, with none of us knowing if our follow-on contracts will come through and be wholly supported. Our parent lab has just gone through a round of lay-offs. This so soon after such hope and excitement were generated as our group moved into and claimed our own lab space for the first time. Plans for decor of the suite as a 'showcase' for whole lab were suddenly put on hold as the focus 'upstairs' moved to painful change and survival.

Daily we have sat with partial furnishings and temporary solutions, including ragtag pieces of mismatched dishes, cups, and disposable plasticware. We hand a a twelve-year-old cup marked 'Roy' to a customer, answering, "No, 'Roy' won't mind; he worked here a long time ago."

And yet, of all the groups in the building, I am privileged to be in one that remains positive and energetic in making new things happen. In honor of that, I came across a new set of dishes on a clearance rack: 40 pieces for a whole $15! Then I spied the flatware, with colorful handles on a sleek little rack, ten bucks. I smiled bigger and bigger as each box landed in my basket, only to be greeted by a set of glassware for a whole $7. Score!

I quietly toted it all upstairs this morning, putting away the mishmash of before while neatly stacking the new stuff in its proud new place in our kitchen. In a sense, this seemed silly and premature; what if, come May, the group is no more? What if, schmut if .... It's a gift of faith that we will remain, or a whole 38 cents a day to say every day that we do our work here is worthy of goodness and light.