My mother used to say things just to make me mad。 Like most teenagers, I thought I knew everything. And what I didn't know, I didn't want to be told. For example, if I said I was going to a movie, my mother would roll her eyes. On my way out, she'd shout, “You need to slow yourself down before something bad happens!You don't want to learn that the hard way!” I didn't know what that meant. I thought she just wanted me to stay at home.

    Many years later I had three teenagers of my own. They thought they knew everything. I would say the same things to them like my mom. That's when I first saw it. My mother wasn't trying to help me.

    Why do we always have to learn things “the hard way”? Why can't we just accept our elders' wisdom? It's a good lesson for anyone. Clearly, I still haven't learned it.

    Yesterday, I stepped out of the shower when I heard my cell phone ringing in the kitchen. Grabbing a towel, I ran through the house. I grabbed the phone and hit my left foot against the table. The X-ray showed that I'd broken two toes.

    We all need to slow ourselves down once in a while, before something bad does it for us. My mother was right about a lot of things. I wish I could have told her.