Like Mother, Like Daughter (Oops)

I was not a witness to the event, but I remember tales of what happened the day my mother's pressure cooker erupted. I don't remember why, although she was a very kitchen-savvy woman who had used the cooker many times so given that this was many decades ago, I assume the pressure cooker malfunctioned.

Dramatically.

There was food on the ceiling, on the walls, and on the floor. And presumably on Mom. This is the reason why I have never bought nor stepped within erupting distance of a pressure cooker.

So why "Like Mother" you ask?

I just got another jar attachment for my Blendtec blender to make hummus, salad dressings, nut butters, etc. Things that required a different design from the usual jar. Unlike my mother, I didn't sit down and read the manual first. (To save myself from sounding completely silly, much of the time I normally do, but not this time.)

Unfortunately, I should have.

Fortunately, I was chanting. And I was standing within arm's length of the blender.

Apparently, (hindsight is wonderful!) I had filled the jar too much with my usual morning smoothie. I did have the presence of mind to not turn on the blender and leave the kitchen.

Being a powerful blender, the moving of the jar contents is very strong and forceful. So forceful in fact that the contents came shooting out the pour spout of the blender jar.

Where did the contents go you ask?

On the walls, on the water filter, and yes, a bit on the floor. I purposely keep it under the cabinets so I managed to miss the ceiling (and I just now checked) and me. (You have no idea how difficult it is to clean up tiny bits of fresh blueberries. They stick to everything like glue!)

The good part of all this (in addition to getting something to write about) is that since I was chanting, I did not get upset. At all. I calmly cleaned everything up, poured the remaining smoothie into the larger jar, added more blueberries, etc., and finished making my smoothie.

Wow!

Before I started practicing, this would most definitely NOT have been my reaction.

Chanting—silently or aloud, at the front of one's mind or the back—has wonderful consequences. Ultimately, it will enable us to be reborn in the Wester Pure Land. But until that longed-for rebirth happens, it will help us face life's daily challenges more calmly and more happily.

And more like our mother would have wished.