I’m not the biggest fan of packing, but sometimes it needs to be done. And this was one of those times. It was a couple of months ago, we were having some painting/installation work done, and I needed to clear everything out of the rooms. The timing was just wrong, as the period the contractors had scheduled the work for was just when I was going to be alone with my two kids for the first time. I felt like I was just about managing to get us all through each day fed, clean and intact. I could have possibly rescheduled it for much later, for when my other half would have been back home (he had travelled during that period), but this was something that was supposed to have been done ages before, and I just wanted to get it over and done with. Thankfully, the contractors in charge were somewhat accommodating, and after a bit of discussion around the scheduling of the work, they allowed me to take it one room at a time. However, it still ended up being quite an exhausting job, as I had to empty each room of everything except large pieces of furniture, and then move the furniture so that all the walls were easily accessible. Thankfully though, I had done most of it and it was finally the day when the last room was to be done.

Unfortunately, I had barely had any spare time in the days leading up to that day to do much sorting out and packing, because my younger son just wasn’t having it! As such, when that day came, there was still A LOT that needed to be done. So, I decided in my infinite wisdom, that I was going to sacrifice the bulk of my sleep that morning, and before 3 am, I was up and working, hoping to complete it before they arrived at around 8:30 am. Well, even though the boys were not sleeping in that room, and I was as quiet as I could be, trust that to be the day that even my elder son, who normally sleeps till late, decided to wake up early! My younger son is an early riser, so his waking up early was expected, even though not exactly appreciated.

Anyway, they of course choose that room to hang around and play, and they both start getting whiny after a while. Plus my older son decided it would also be nice to help me “re-arrange” what I had already packed, ha! At this point (this was around 7 am), I was feeling quite stressed out, because I still had a lot to do, I was tired, having only had about four hours of sleep, and I could sense that I was getting cranky. I tried to ignore them and go on with my work, but well, ignorance of the noise is no ermm… truce (Terrible attempt at a pun I know, sorry :-)). Eventually, I had to face the m̶u̶s̶i̶c̶  noise. So I said “I need peace and harmony in this house!” I tend to make my older son repeat what I say to make sure he has gotten the message loud and clear, especially in scenarios like this, so I repeated it again “I need peace and harmony in this house”. Then I looked at him and said, “I need what?” And he replied “Peace and money”.

Well, I burst into laughter. And even though he probably did not understand why I was laughing, he started laughing too, and for a couple of minutes, we just sat down on the floor laughing and laughing. Even my 6 month old started smiling too. And in that simple moment, I felt a lot of the stress and tension I had been feeling ease off. You know the feeling you get when the temperature of the sun has been turned up to the max, you are trying to fan yourself to ease the discomfort, but it’s barely making any difference. Then you dive (or step) into a pool of perfect-temperature water and all of a sudden, the heat and discomfort just melt away, and the world feels upright again? That’s how I felt. It also broke the whiny spell the boys were having, and they started playing somewhat peacefully again. And in the end, the good news was that I finished all that needed to be done well before the contractors arrived! (It helped though that they ended up coming by 9 am, which was slightly later than I had expected).

The funny thing is, my son knows how to say “peace and harmony” properly. In fact, there’s a particular song from a cartoon he used to watch with the line “Peace and harmony in all the world”, and he used to sing it a lot. But somehow, I felt God knew I needed something to ease the tension I felt that day, and he used a mistake to change the mood in the house for the better! Plus, who doesn’t mind a bit of peace and money?

The lesson I learnt that day was that not every mistake has to be a disaster and something to continuously beat yourself up about. Sometimes, whether we may know it or not at the time, our mistakes can eventually end up having an amazing purpose! In any case, even if they don’t have a life-changing, world-inspiring, earth-shattering purpose, hopefully at some point in the future, they will give you something to look back on, laugh about and tell the grand kids!