personal mastery

Parents can be such a pain at times.. sat down with my parents for lunch just now (a once-in-a-blue-moon phenomena - since we hardly have meals together) and my mum and I started having this ridiculous (almost usual) squabble over something that was so trivial that i cannot recall even a bit of it now...

normally, i would have just stood up and gone off to sulk in a corner for a while to cool things down (i've long given up face-to-face confrontations knowing how clearly fruitless, and potentially explosive and senseless they can become). Either that or i would have just remained there and tried my best to block out what she was saying with loud humming noises in my head (..it works, believe me - this is one of my secret weapons against insults..). However, the words of Scroll II of Og Mandino's The Greatest Secret In The World was still in my head, having just read it randomly this morning... it said:

"I will greet this day with love in my heart.

I will love the sun for it warms my bones; yet I will love the rain for it cleanses my spirit. I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. I will welcome happiness for it enlarges my heart; yet I will endure sadness for it opens my soul. I will acknowledge rewards for they are my due; yet I will welcome obstacles for they are my challenge." (see whole passage here)

Although i was still feeling rather sore (believe me, i was feeling really really annoyed) , i started to consider if there was any way i could possibly make the situation better, much as i didn't think it was my fault at all.. and i suddenly thought how surprised my mother would be if i started showing her that i cared instead (even if i didn't feel like that at the moment) and helped her to do some housework and to wash the dishes in the sink.. and besides, i could get out of the tense situation and we would be out of each other's faces too, at least for a while....

and it worked!

She came into the kitchen, surprised by the washed dishes, and her voice immediately softened. She said, "oh, why don't you just go out and have lunch first. I can do the dishes later. I don't need you to do them".. and the tense situation immediately dispersed..

rather trivial incident but it felt good.. it felt like some kind of personal mastery for me.. .. oh well.. :)