(Minghui.org) Every person we meet in this world has a karmic relationship with us. After my second granddaughter was born, we hired a maid. I treated her well and always did my best to accommodate her needs. After learning the facts of Falun Dafa, she made it convenient for me to do well what I should as a practitioner.
Our maid was a conservative woman from the countryside. Her jobs were to clean the house, take care of the baby, and prepare meals for the family. She worked from eight a.m. to six p.m. We paid her 100 yuan a day with lunch included.
She worked diligently and was very reliable. She kept our house very clean, and our entire family, including my daughter-in-law who was hard to please, were very satisfied with her.
My daughter-in-law assigned this maid many chores. She was very particular about what should and shouldn't be washed in the washing machine. If the baby wet the bed, she decided that the heavy quilt be dried in the sun. The maid's chores included filling three big kettles with boiled water every day, cleaning the cabinets, selling the recyclables, and so on. She was out of breath all day long, given all the chores that my daughter-in-law expected her to do.
I stood up for her and told my daughter-in-law that she was already in her 50s, and thus we should not overload her.
To help reduce our maid's workload, I took over some of the chores that my daughter-in-law gave her. I hoped that my daughter-in-law would realize that our maid was not a robot and that we should not look down on her.
When my 10-year-old granddaughter loudly ordered the maid to fill her water bottle, I told her that she was old enough to do it by herself. Doing some chores was good for her and it was disrespectful for a child to act that way.
In our daily life, I acted as a role model and taught her that treating others with kindness was like treating oneself nicely, so the child became more and more considerate and mature.
The maid told me that she wanted to divorce her husband, because he refused to help her with her chores. It was not easy to work all day and then cook dinner and take care of their granddaughter.
I explained the pros and cons of a divorce, including how it would affect her and her children.
“Your husband must feel stressed out and frustrated,” I said, “because he could not find a job. You should understand his situation. Mutual understanding is the key to a healthy relationship. You can't rely on your husband to do household chores. Gradually adjust your mindset, and everything will be fine.” She never mentioned divorce again.
After I learned about her family situation, I tried to mitigate her stress. In the winter, I let her go home 30 minutes earlier since it got dark early. Sometimes, if she had to run some errands, such as her granddaughter needed immunization shots, there were activities going on at the day-care center, or she had guests at home, I let her go and did not take it out of her salary. When she broke dishes or used the wrong detergent to do the laundry, I comforted her.
Sometimes my daughter-in-law complained when she saw me cook dinner. I told her that I let the housemaid leave early and the food would have been cold by the time we ate.
Leaving earlier gave our maid more time for her family, which would reduce some of the pressure on her. Seeing a big smile on her face made me feel happy, too.
It is a karmic relationship that brought us together, and this is why we should not treat her as someone inferior. If my granddaughter was asleep in the afternoon, I let her leave earlier after she finished all the chores. She often commented that working for my family was a pleasure.
As time went by, my kindness won her trust, and she felt comfortable sharing everything with me. I knew the time was ready for me to clarify the truth about Dafa to her. The first time I mentioned Falun Dafa to her, she looked surprised.
“Isn't it scary? Don't they kill and set themselves on fire?” she asked, referring to the Tiananmen Square self-immolation plot staged by the government. I asked her if I looked like a murderer or someone who would set myself on fire? She responded that she thought that I was a kindhearted person.
I told her that I was a Dafa practitioner, showed her the book Zhuan Falun, and mentioned that she had seen me read this book every day. She looked at me as if she had just met me. I knew she could not understand why a person like me would practice Falun Dafa.
I continued, “The propaganda on television about Falun Dafa is fabricated to defame Falun Gong and deceive the Chinese people. I follow the Falun Dafa teachings, which helps me tell the difference between kind and evil, good and bad, and righteousness and wickedness.”
I told her that, before I practiced Falun Dafa, I suffered from a variety of ailments, including myocardial ischemia, insomnia, arthritis, allergies, and gynecological diseases.
I explained, “Whenever my symptoms came on, I could not eat or sleep. I could not do anything, and I could not stand loud noises. I had my elderly parents and children to take care of, so I was always afraid that one day I would become bedridden. As I got older, I came down with more health problems and had to take lots of medicine. I was miserable.
“Luckily I came across Falun Dafa, recovered from all my illnesses in 1998, and no longer have to take any medication. Through cultivating in Falun Dafa, my body and mind have undergone great changes. I am very grateful and determined to follow Teacher Li's teachings and live by the principles of Truthfulness-Compassion-Forbearance to be a good person.”
She was touched by my story and understood my reasons for practicing Dafa. After she learned the facts about Dafa, she made it more convenient for me to do the three things.
When I did the exercises, she kept things very quiet and took my granddaughter to play outside. When it was time to send forth righteous thoughts, she often reminded me. I am grateful and feel lucky to have her as our maid!