Breathing Day 12, Not Complaining Day 5

It really does get easier.  I am finding that now in any given situation that has the potential to trigger complaining in me, I think: solution or acceptance?

Dropping criticizing and judging feels good.  Gossipping is a bit harder, because any conversation about a third party can hit that slippery slope toward gossip. When is it gossip?  If this is becoming gossip, now what do I do, leave the room? Steer things back to facts? Say something to remind us all that we are slipping toward judging or hearsay? Maybe we just never talk about people who are not in the room.

The last couple of days and today have been so lovely. There is harmony in the household. We work together so effortlessly when we give each other the gift of acceptance.

Sylvain and I took in two movies during the Windsor International Film Festival: ONCE and Persepolis. Both are very much worth seeing.  The first one left me playing Glen Hansard and Marketa Irglova’s music over and over the rest of the night.

This morning Sylvain was about to make pancakes but there was a rotten egg hiding in the box. It exploded in his hand, splattering his clothes.  The smell was strong. Without missing a beat, we simply moved to the solution. I accompanied him back upstairs to facilitate a quick change of clothes and we started a load of laundry. Ma stepped in and poached us all some eggs.

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Sylvain had noticed a couple of months ago that each Wednesday when I cooked, his sister M asked a lot of questions. How do you know to do that? Where did you learn that? She told me she had always wanted to learn to cook, but can’t learn from her Ma. I understand. I can’t learn painting from my mother. I could learn from a stranger, but not from my mom.

Sylvain said to me one day, “if you want to offer M a cooking lesson one night, I’ll do the dishes.”  And so I made the offer.

Although she was very nervous about the whole idea, once she accepted and we started shopping yesterday for the ingredients, she was geeked.

“I’m gonna cooooook, I’m gonna cooooook,” she said to nobody in particular in a taunting sing-song way over and over throughout the day.

The meal came off without a hitch. We work well together. I like her quiet sense of humour.

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Tonight was our Sunday check-in. Both Sylvain and I notice the change in our relationship brought about by what I am practicing.

It is good.