From Clean Restrooms To Deep Thoughts About Life

I have this OCD-tendencies, not the truly-diagnosed type. I don't want 'kalat', I always make it a point to clean everything around me, wash my hands over and over, you know stuff like those which annoys the normal person. I have this thing for washrooms, especially. My little house in La Union is quite in disarray most of the time because of Winky, our youngest (she's a shitzu), but our restroom is always clean, well,  when my housemates know I am coming home for the weekend, at least. 

The first major repair I did when I was assigned in Ilocos Norte was the restrooms. Same with Ilocos Sur. I have always believed that a lot can be said about a house, or an office for that matter, by just looking at the washrooms/restrooms/cr, whatever we want to call them. My daughter, Ana, got a little of that from me. When she was a little girl and we went out to eat, she would always ask if she could go to the restroom. I take her, she pretends to pee, which she does not actually, but she looks around the restrooms examining every corner. Looking for what, I don't know. 

I thought of that now because this tendencies, I also take to my work. I write my own correspondence; I look at numbers in  reports and but I don't check if they 'sound' logical.  I always make sure my table is clear at the end of each day, no 'kalat'. It's like temporary closure, I can leave the office with my mind clear enough to sleep. However, because this attitude at the workplace, things get through the cracks. I remember having signed an endorsement of a project entitled 'vintage spillway' which was supposed to be 'vented spillway'. (What?!)  I inadvertently sign documents which I am not supposed to sign in the first place, simply because my name is there. Only because I want to get things done swiftly. That is why, even when I think I am running a tight ship, I get laughed at just the same.😩 So much for no 'kalat'. 

The lesson I particularly learned here is that for one, it is more important to get things done properly than promptly. At times in our haste to be 'on time', we fail to give more attention to the small details. That brings us more trouble. Another is that I have to be in-the-know of everything, as in, everything that goes in in the office, because if I don't, I will have to bear looking stupid. And that will include the whole organization. Lastly, it is vital to know from whom to exact accountability, because people in the organization will not take the blame for anything that goes wrong

A lot like life, don't you think? We do things here and there, hurriedly, because we need to squeeze in all these in a day, in a week, in a month. Our days are measured by calendar days with the people who matter, those we love. We do things as a matter of habit, or from a structured existence, that we fail to recognize what really should be given focus. I spend a night of each week with my son, which forces him to make time for 'Mom', rather than spending time with one another spontaneously. Last weekend I was home, I was looking forward to having this 'mom-and-son' dinner with him but he was just too tired. He slept four hours instead, while I was waiting for him. He woke up too late during the night, came to me and hugged me, saying he was sorry he slept. I did not feel bad about it because, he was tired. And I only have one day to spare. 

We had the chance to have lunch the following day, though, which brings me to the second point. There was plenty of stuff I do not know about my son now. I do know most, but not all. That is sad. We all have only one shot at life, and we waste it by forcing ourselves to do what 'the job' requires us to do, and we fail to know the loveliest details there is in our lives: a case in point; my son knows more Shakespeare than I do. When I asked him, 'how do you know all these?'. He replied, 'Mom, you bought me tons of KZone magazines when I was younger, I read it there.' Really? 

The most difficult of all  is owning up to mistakes, and be willingly accountable for them. If you are to exact accountability from your staff, for example, you must also be willing to take the consequences of your own actions. This act of carrying the burden for others if it is the result of no one else's decision but your own, one needs to have humility. This is one virtue which is not taught in school, it is bred together with you, and your family, from childhood. And by the way, these all remind me that one's acts? They bear effects to others. You do not make a choice by whim, because there are others living in your world who will be nudged. 

So what do the clean restrooms have to do with all these? 

From clean restrooms, to deep thoughts about life. That was a big leap. 

- written while waiting for my daughter, Ana, who came to visit through the long weekend.