I came
across this story sometime back and it left me ruminating over several things
about relationships!
‘When I was a kid, my Mom liked to make breakfast
food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when
she had made dinner after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long
ago, my Mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage and extremely burned biscuits in
front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all dad did
was reached for his biscuit, smile at my Mom and ask me how my day was at
school. I don’t remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching
him smear butter and jelly on that biscuit and eat every bite!
Later
that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked
his biscuits burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, “Your Momma put in a
hard day at work today and she’s real tired. And besides – a little burned
biscuit never hurt anyone!”
We all have our moments of
imperfectness, we come across others’ who are equally flawed, things that are
defective. Haven’t we ourselves experienced, witnessed or been instrumental in
say:
§ Stubbing out a colleague's smile
with an acerbic remark
§ Destroying a subordinate's dreams
with our cynicism
§ Killing a friend's idea with
over-intellectualisation
§ Overburdening our family because
we have been irresponsible about our own health
§ Eroding our children's self-esteem
with our own conditioned thoughts, inhibitions and fears!
And yet we are so quick at pointing our fingers at others, want to change the world outside while putting a
lid on our own flaws, voice our opinions aloud, intellectualise, debate over
what's right and what's not and protest about how unfair some people tend to be.
Many of which do not impact our here and now!!!
In reality, the world we actually
live in is the world where the small things we do or don’t do has a large
impact on all around - our family, our neighbours, friends, our
communities. The world, where we are not a speck of dust but truly
significant!
We are
so fascinated by the 'waves' of change we can possibly create in the larger world outside, we miss out on the power of a
ripple that can impact our immediate environment! For starters we and those around us are happy when we are:
§ Using
empathic language
§ Holding
back on cynicisms and sarcasms
§ Restraining
from abuse of any kind
§ Reaching
out to others even in small ways possible
§ Being
responsible for ourselves, our health
§ Saying
thankyou
Few such happy members staying together make a happy family, few happy families staying
together make a happy neighbourhood, few happy neighbourhoods make a community
and so on! In accepting each
other’s faults and choosing to celebrate each other’s differences we have
cracked the code of creating healthy, growing, and lasting relationships.
And these
are the little ripples of love that we have power to start. Make a difference, make a beginning, start a ripple and see it getting bigger...!
