Surprise

One of the abilities I encourage in consultation skills is that of accepting whatever the client says without judgement or excessive reaction. I like the flow of information to be smooth. Recently though my surprise just had to show through.

I was giving an example consultation to a student. In fact she had already surprised me the previous day when she told me the reason she was a little late for class was that she had taken sunday lunch over to her mother before coming to class. She told me her mother was 97 years old. I could hardly believe it - i would never have said this student was old enough to have a 97 year old mother … (but of course i was too much of a gentleman to ask …)

During the consultation she spoke about wanting to inspire her daughter to be more free. “What does she do? Whats her situation?” I asked. “Oh she still lives at home with me” she replied. “She is 16 years old.” I couldn’t believe my ears! Yesterday a 97 year old mother and now a 16 year old daughter! For once my jaw dropped.

I wrote these words recently as i was waiting to have my hair cut in Budapest. I speak no hungarian and my hair dresser no english. I showed her approximately what i wanted. Imagine my surprise when she got the shaver and immediately shaved the front of my head! I had to laugh when she asked me if i liked it. Whatever i felt made no difference. I let her continue. The good news with haircuts though is, even if i don’t like them, they always seem to grow on me!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.