My spiritual ministry practice this week was going to be a day of silence. That did not work out so well as I had planned, so much of what I do requires me to communicate verbally. So I decided that as I served for the free community meal I would not get into any arguments with my family. I would allow everyone to serve in their area of expertise without interference from me. I almost was not successful because of my mother law counting the sacks. I had tried to explain to her there was no need to count the number of sacks because I planned out exactly 100. I purchased exactly 100 bags of chips and 100 sweet treats to go into the sacks, we would clearly know when we were at 100 by when those items were gone.
Well that was not what she was trying to do, she was trying to count how many brown paper sacks could fit into the carrying boxes. So it was not her goal to get to 100, it was her goal to see how many she could fit into the boxes for delivery.
What did I learn from this? Many of our disagreements stem from us not listening to one another. Both of us are so sure we're right that we don't take time to listen to one another. I think that this has become more apparent since she moved in with us. Its hard to have 2 grown women with strong personalities under one roof, with a male that loves us both caught in the middle. On my part I can do my best to live at peace with her. I can take more time to listen to what she is saying, instead of how she is saying it. I can take a deep breath and not get emotionally charged every time we have an exchange. Though I didn't get to spend my day in silence, I did learn that I need to be silent at times. I'd say that's a lesson that couldn't have been learned if I was in total silence as I had intended.
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