Reflexión - Panecillos Quemados
I received the following message on my email today. I just felt like sharing it with the SD Community; I think it's a nice little meditation.
I suspect that this is actually a translation from an original in English, so I made a small modification. Anyone with the ambition to do so is welcome to translate it to English (or post the original, if you have it), although I cannot guarantee that I will be able to check translations for errors. This is not a grammar exercise, it's just food for thought:
Panecillos Quemados
Cuando yo era niño, a mi mamá le gustaba hacer la cena.
Recuerdo una noche en particular, cuando ella había hecho la cena, después de un largo y duro día en el trabajo. Esa noche, hace mucho tiempo, mi mamá puso un plato de huevos, salchichas y panecillos muy quemados, frente a mi padre.
¡Recuerdo estar esperando ver si alguien lo notaba!
Sin embargo, aunque mi padre lo notó, tomó un panecillo, sonrió a mi madre y me preguntó cómo me había ido en la escuela. No recuerdo lo que le contesté, pero sí recuerdo verlo untándole mantequilla y mermelada al panecillo y comérselo todo.
Cuando me levanté de la mesa esa noche, recuerdo haber oído a mi madre pedir disculpas a mi padre por los panecillos quemados. Nunca voy a olvidar lo que él dijo: "Cariño, me encantan los panecillos tostaditos."
Más tarde esa noche, fui a dar el beso de las buenas noches a mi padre y le pregunté si a él le gustaban los panecillos quemados. Él me abrazó y dijo: "Tu mamá tuvo un día muy duro en el trabajo; está muy cansada y además, un panecillo un poco quemado no le hace daño a nadie”.
La vida está llena de cosas imperfectas y gente imperfecta. Yo no soy el mejor en casi nada; me olvido de los cumpleaños y aniversarios como todo el mundo. Pero lo que he aprendido con los años, es que aprender a aceptar los defectos de cada uno de nosotros - y decidir celebrar cada una de las diferencias de los demás - es una de las cosas más importantes para crear una relación sana y duradera... donde un panecillo quemado no va a romper un corazón.
Podríamos extender esto a cualquier tipo de relación.
De hecho, la comprensión es la base de cualquier relación, ya sea esposo-esposa o padre-hijo... ¡o cualquier tipo de amistad!
Sé más amable de lo necesario, porque toda la gente que conocemos, en este momento, están librando algún tipo de batalla.
...Todo lo que el hombre sembrare, eso también cosechará.. Sembremos cosas buenas, para recibir cosechas buenas...
14 Answers
Lorenzo said
Grace is smiling and giving a joyful wave back to someone who just gave you the finger--maybe they are having a bad day.
Having lived and worked in the American south, I have heard more often than not, when someone gives you the finger in traffic, they will say,
" bless their heart,they are having a bad day"
The traditional values still Do exist!
Here is a story from the 2nd grade Spanish book in Guayas:
LAS MANOS FEAS
- Mamá,- dijo el niño mirando a la madre en la cara-, ¡eres muy bella !
La madre sonriño complacida, pues, es dulce el halago en labios de un niño .
Sí, - continuo el niño- no hay en todo el mundo una mamá más linda... menos en las manos.
No las mires, pues que son tan feas,-dijo-.
No puedo evitarlo. Cada vez que las toco tengo que mirarlas; son manos enrojecidas y cubiertas de cicatrices. ¡oh, si fueran lindas como tu cara!
El padre llamó aparte al niño y le dijo:
-Te contaré una historia: una noche una criatura dormía en su cuna. Debido a un descuido tomaron fuego las cortinas de la cuna, que en un instante quedó envuelta en llamas. La sirvienta salió corriendo de la habitación, pero la madre se precipitó y con sus manos blancas apagó el fuego y salvó a la criatura. Esas manos recibierón terribles quemaduras. Durante semanas estuvierón vendadas y sin poder servir. Cuando cicatrizaron las llagas, las manos eran...
Pero el niño no esperó el fin del relato, corrió a arrodillarse junto a la madre y tomándole las manos rojas y cubiertas de cicatrices, las besó repetidas veces, diciendo:
-¡Mamá, tus manos son las mas bellas del mundo!
...Todo lo que el hombre sembrare, eso también cosechará.. Sembremos cosas buenas, para recibir cosechas buenas...
I agree. I think life is a perfect circle. What one gives is what one gets. In that sequence.
Due to my activities I do not have the time to cook the way I would like to do it. Often, I have not done well: I left the food partially cooked, burnt, unseasoned, salty, etc, or served leftovers to my husband. However, he is the kindest man I ever met. He will always welcome the dish, and at the end of the meal, he invariably will say: thank you my love, it was wonderful !
To me this is the best proof of love.
I must have done something right, in order to deserve this blessing.
And he must have done something wrong to endure my cooking!
Gekko, thank you for reminding us of the valuable things of life.
This is a wonderful story, Gekkosan!!
Also here's very similar one: (I heard this story too long ago, and I translated it form Arabic, so l night have missed some phrases)
Once there was a wife, she was cooking dinner and she was really tired and frustrated, she put too much salt, the food was burned and the dinner was a disaster!!
*When her husband came, and after he finished his dinner, she was just waiting for him to tell her how bad she cooked, but she was surprised by her husband, smiling and he was very nice that day! so she asked him if he was mad because of the bad dinner he ate, and he replied to her and said **No, I'm not, actually today is the happiest day in my life because only today you reminded me of our first week in our marriage when you used to cook badly and I used to be happy because you were learning*
He converted her bad mistake, to a beautiful thing which was a very nice thing!
Nice Gekkosan. What a great attitude to have for life.and what a better world it would be if we could do this.
Gekko, cielo, creo que voy a dejar a mi amado Julian por ti, eres el que cuenta las mejores historias
Buen sentimento!
Looks like english muffins Gekkosan. Although I cannot actually make a translation I can understand text with the love and tolerance. Truly a good story and a good life lesson.
Hey, Gekko! I enjoyed reading this. Here's what I found online in English. I don't offer it as a word for word translation but I suspect that it's where it came from. I don't know who wrote it.
Embracing Imperfection
When I was a little girl, my mom liked to make breakfast food for dinner every now and then. And I remember one night in particular when she had made breakfast after a long, hard day at work. On that evening so long ago, my mom placed a plate of eggs, sausage, and extremely burned toast in front of my dad. I remember waiting to see if anyone noticed! Yet all my dad did was reach for his toast, smile at my mom, and ask me how my day was at school. I don't remember what I told him that night, but I do remember watching him smear butter and jelly on that toast and eat every bite!
When I got up from the table that evening, I remember hearing my mom apologize to my dad for burning the toast. And I'll never forget what he said: 'Baby, I love burned toast.'
Later that night, I went to kiss Daddy good night and I asked him if he really liked his toast burned. He wrapped me in his arms and said, 'Your momma put in a hard day at work today and she's real tired. And besides-a little burnt toast never hurt anyone!'
You know, life is full of imperfect things.....and imperfect people. I'm not the best housekeeper or cook. What I've learned over the years is that learning to accept each other's faults - and choosing to celebrate each other's differences - is the one of the most important keys to creating a healthy, growing, and lasting relationship.
What a lovely story and a beautiful sentiment! Thank you for sharing this, Gekko .
If only we all had the grace to accept trivial mistakes like this. Now if you make one tiny driving error (perhaps not even an error as a perceived one), someone will give you the finger or worse.
Grace is smiling and giving a joyful wave back to someone who just gave you the finger--maybe they are having a bad day.
Here´s the orginal
It is beautiful sentiment no matter the language. This is the meaning of grace.
This is a beautiful story Gekko. What a great lesson this father taught his son. This father was able to pass on the idea of selflessness, patience, kindness, tenderness, forgiveness, humility and unconditional love....all without a single word.
Sometimes I think we as parents (I know I do) spend hours and hours "talking" to our children about what is right and how to behave. This story is an inspiration to me to start showing more through example and less through lecturing. 
If only we all had the grace to accept trivial mistakes like this. Now if you make one tiny driving error (perhaps not even an error as a perceived one), someone will give you the finger or worse.
