“Don’t worry that your children never listen to you,” essayist Robert Fulghum wisely wrote, “worry that they are always watching you.”
Sometimes, of course, our little ones do both. This happy insight struck me when I read a recent essay by my daughter, the best writer in the family, truly. Her words were evidence that she had taken to heart a parable I told her when she was growing up and also watched me tackle large tasks with its inspired lesson.
The big task of clearing a bamboo field happens one stalk at a time…
The story, shared with me long ago by golfing legend Chi Chi Rodriguez while recalling his childhood in Puerto Rico, goes like this: “When I was a young boy we had a little field that was overgrown with bamboo trees. My father wanted to plant corn, but clearing the bamboo would have taken a month. He didn’t have the time because of his job. So every night when he came home from work my father would cut down a single piece of bamboo.”
Chi Chi paused, dramatically, then emphasized: “Just one piece.”
Before his conclusion, let me share my daughter’s similar tale.
“This morning,” she wrote, “I woke up and felt exhausted even though my two-year-old daughter actually slept in and I was able to get a decent amount of sleep. As my husband changed her diaper, I got up to make coffee for him and tea for me.
“The kitchen was filled with dirty dishes from not just last night’s dinner, but from the past few days. I looked at those dishes and thought: Ugh! I CAN’T EVEN right now.
… juts as a cluttered sink of dirty dishes gets cleaned one dish at a time.
“My mind immediately began filling with excuses and reasons to ignore the dishes, yet again, until later. As if by putting them off until later some magical Dish Fairy would sneak into our kitchen and do them all for us. (Which does actually happen when my parents or mother-in-law or sister-in-law come over!)
“But the coffee strainer was dirty, so I had to wash that. Plus, I might as well wash my favorite mug so I could use that for my morning tea. Waiting for the kettle to boil, I did a few more dishes. And it wasn’t that hard to slot a bunch of dirty plates and bowls into the dishwasher. Already the counters looked much cleaner.
“I poured the hot water into my mug and still had a few minutes of waiting for the tea to steep, so I figured I might as well do a few more dishes. I took a sip of tea. Mmmm. Already I was feeling better, less groggy, more ready to face the day.
“My sponge was still soapy and I hate to waste some good soapsuds, so I scrubbed more pots and pans, then dried them and put them away. Meanwhile, our daughter was, miraculously, entertaining herself in her crib. This far in, I figured I might as well keep going and finish the job. And that is what I did.
“Looking around the clean kitchen, I felt so much better about the day, my life, myself. It might sound silly, but my clean kitchen made me feel more confident and capable and cheerful. Instead of a sink and counter full of dirty dishes, I now had a clean slate. And it almost didn’t happen. It started with just washing one little dish.”
Just as the bamboo field started with cutting down just one stalk.
“The very next spring, we had corn on our dinner table, “Chi Chi Rodriquez concluded with a knowing smile. “The Bamboo Story, to me, is the secret to success.”
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Woody Woodburn writes a weekly column for The Ventura County Star and can be contacted at WoodyWriter@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram at @woodywoodburn. His SIGNED books are available at www.WoodyWoodburn.com.
Personalized Signed copies of WOODEN & ME: Life Lessons from My Two-Decade Friendship with the Legendary Coach and Humanitarian to Help “Make Each Day Your Masterpiece” and “Strawberries in Wintertime: Essays on Life, Love, and Laughter” are available at WoodyWoodburn.com