Mai Pen Rai and the power of a full thank you

Regular readers of this blog know that one of my fascinations (along with yoga) is the study of language. Linguistics should have been my minor in college. I really do think I can trace the appeal it has for me to the first time I heard the story of Pentecost - when the Holy Spirit is said to have descended upon the apostles, prompting them to speak in languages previously unknown to them. 

I love reading along to captions as a foreign language is spoken in a film or other recording. Hearing the other language spoken aloud will always be entertaining. I find myself trying to decipher the words being said - as if I can find the familiar in the unknown - I latch on to anything recognizable. This isn't always possible, especially when hearing tonic languages as opposed to romance languages, which can stem from common root words.

Mai Pen Rai, the title of this post is a Thai expression that has a variety of translations. Some swear it means "It's okay, everything's okay, don't worry" while others suggest it substitutes for thank you. Still others say it means, never mind. It all really depends on the context of use. When I think about it, that last one I mention "never mind" makes me think about the Spanish phrase, "de nada" - which literally translates to "of nothing" - but more commonly finds itself used to mean - you're welcome, when someone says thank you - which is not nothing. 

Recently I had reason to say a very specific thank you to Huz. There's a little back story I need to share. His mom lives with us, as regular blog readers already know. She is 96 and rarely sleeps through the night. Her bedroom lies directly above ours. Sharing a ceiling with a somewhat nocturnal elder who uses a cane to walk leads to interrupted sleep, by me - a person with mom hearing even in a deep sleep. 

The middle of the night "THUD" wakes me up almost every time, with an immediate jump in heart rate. Depending on how tired I am, it can take me a while to fall back to sleep. Sometimes hours. Not good.

What's also not good is that Huz wakes up too. 

That's why it wasn't news to him when I'd mention it the next day. What was news to him was how triggering the thudding noise, any time during the day had now become. Even the passionate retelling of a story, where someone pounds on the table to make a point would get my heart rate up. When the home health aide thoughtfully brought a ball from home to play with Anita during the day - we were happy about it. Then came the thudding noise of the ball bouncing on the floor, our ceiling. Heart rate soaring (temporarily) until I practiced deep breathing to calm myself down.

I told him about it and he took it upon himself to remove the cane at night. We're still testing this to make sure it isn't a hazard. Really the only reason for her to get up at night is to visit the bathroom and she can get there holding on to the bed, the dresser, the wall - so there is minimal fall risk.

Night one, no thudding.

So this morning, I thanked him fully. Specifically, I said, thank you for showing me you really listened to me. 

He said, de nada. *sigh*