It's amazing how things come around as you get older. When I was about 15 years old, I had a huge argument with my dad about (of all things) the way that I was washing dishes.
We were living in Mexico City, Mexico at the time and water was a premium resource. The public was constantly being encouraged to save water in any way possible. We even had set days when we were allowed to water the grass. We were fortunate in that we had a water tank on top of our house for the times when the water was turned off to our neighborhood.
This water shortage is what led to our knock down drag out argument. My dad was trying to teach me the "Right" way to wash dishes and I was a stubborn 15 year old who didn't want to have anyone tell me how to do something in a different way than what I was doing.
After an intense argument, I stormed off to my room totally upset. "I was trying to help by washing the dishes," I thought to myself. I couldn't believe that I was getting argued with over the way that I was doing something that was supposed to be helpful.
After a few minutes of brooding, I decided to go and ask forgiveness of my dad. I knew that I was right, of course, but I also wanted to respect my dad and realized that I probably could have listened better. I went out and apologized to my dad and we hugged. This was the first time that I can remember sincerely asking forgiveness and looking back, I can see that this was a changing point in my relationship with my father. After that day, our relationship began to get better, which was very important in the development of my adolescent self.
Oh yeah, and this post came to me while I was washing dishes more in my dad's style... fill one side of the sink with water and some soap, wash the dishes in that side then move them to the other side and rinse them all at once.
Lesson learned: Asking forgiveness is the most important thing... even if you feel like you weren't wrong in what you did.
We were living in Mexico City, Mexico at the time and water was a premium resource. The public was constantly being encouraged to save water in any way possible. We even had set days when we were allowed to water the grass. We were fortunate in that we had a water tank on top of our house for the times when the water was turned off to our neighborhood.
This water shortage is what led to our knock down drag out argument. My dad was trying to teach me the "Right" way to wash dishes and I was a stubborn 15 year old who didn't want to have anyone tell me how to do something in a different way than what I was doing.
After an intense argument, I stormed off to my room totally upset. "I was trying to help by washing the dishes," I thought to myself. I couldn't believe that I was getting argued with over the way that I was doing something that was supposed to be helpful.
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| the "right" way to wash dishes |
After a few minutes of brooding, I decided to go and ask forgiveness of my dad. I knew that I was right, of course, but I also wanted to respect my dad and realized that I probably could have listened better. I went out and apologized to my dad and we hugged. This was the first time that I can remember sincerely asking forgiveness and looking back, I can see that this was a changing point in my relationship with my father. After that day, our relationship began to get better, which was very important in the development of my adolescent self.
Oh yeah, and this post came to me while I was washing dishes more in my dad's style... fill one side of the sink with water and some soap, wash the dishes in that side then move them to the other side and rinse them all at once.
Lesson learned: Asking forgiveness is the most important thing... even if you feel like you weren't wrong in what you did.