Responsibility...I think I have heard that word before...?

A few weeks I learned a valuable lesson that I thought my parents taught me in high school as I was getting ready to go out into the real world. Well after that week, I realized I never really listened at that time. The lesson is responsibility.

About three weekends back I attended the 60^th anniversary for Weber State University’s Nursing Program. It was a best dress type of occasion, so with my thoughts of looking my best, I chose to wear my grandmother’s pearl necklace that was handed down to me. It is a stunning vintage, 3-string, all white salt water pearl necklace that my late grandfather gave to her. I consider it an heirloom that I hope will stay in my family for a very long time. So I wore that down to Ogden and then later that night I took it off and placed it in the inside zipper of my Time Out for Women (TOFW) tote because I was staying the night at my parents’ house.

Well two Sundays ago we came home for yet another trip down to my parents’ house. As I was preparing for bed, I see that my case where I store the pearls was open; I then realized that I didn’t put them back for that weekend. I rush downstairs to the closet where my TOFW tote is and….IT’S GONE! My tote was empty.  My pearl necklace is nowhere to be found. I run back up the stairs to double check that my eyes didn’t deceive me. Nope…no necklace. I immediately shouted to my husband, who was in the shower, “Honey, where is my necklace?” He began to ask many questions, but I wasn’t paying attention because they only thing I was doing was going into a panic attack. My necklace was GONE!! By this time I was in tears, just absolutely shattered that I lost my grandmother’s pearl necklace. My husband, the super hero he is, jumped out of the shower, threw on a pair of shorts and a hoodie, and ran his wet self out to our freezing detached garage to look in the car for my necklace. In the meantime, I phoned my mom, praying that she had the necklace. To my dismay she did not. By this time I was hysterical and there was no consoling me. However, my mom managed to slip in a bit of advice and told me to calm down and say a prayer. So I did. I got on the floor of my bedroom and assumed the “Child’s Play” position and started to plea with the Lord to lead me to this necklace.

After saying my prayer, I sat up and the thought occurred to me, “my tote was upside down in the closet”. So I again raced down the stairs, tore open the closet and started to throw stuff out of there. As I was throwing stuff around, I picked up a blanket that was on the floor of the closet…AND THERE IT WAS! Of all the places it could be my necklace was on the floor of the closet underneath a blanket. I fell to the ground again and just cried pure tears of joy that I found my grandmother’s necklace.

So why did this teach me about responsibility? That pearl necklace was given to me and I became responsible for it. It wasn’t my husband’s responsibility or my mother’s (even though both leaped to my side), it was mine. I was accountable for taking care of my belongings. Once you make a decision in life, you are responsible for the consequences that occur after that point.

Application to being a domestic housewife: I am responsible for how clean I keep my house. It isn’t my neighbor’s or my landlord’s (we are in a rental), it is mine. It is also my responsibility if I am feeling some hostility towards my husband, to discuss my issue with him. It is not his responsibility to figure out the subtle hints I give him, it is mine to say “Hey! I am bothered by this”. That way it won’t be bottled up and then later blow out of proportion. Case in point:  I was annoyed when my husband used to put towels in the washer with regular clothes. I was always taught never to do this by my mother. As dumb as it may sound, it drove me completely nuts. So I told him.  Which in turn somehow triggered something in his subconscious to realize that, his mother though him that too. Even with something that little, had I not used my small talent of responsibility, it could have gotten worse and it could have been blown way out proportion, which thankfully it wasn’t. So let us remember that we are now the mothers and wives of our new families, so remember to be responsible….don’t leave it to our husbands ha-ha (They can’t do it themselves).