Bad Hair Day

I screwed up this morning. Big time.

When I got home from mass, just after 7am, DH asked me to cut his hair before he got ready for work. I've been cutting the DH's and the boys' hair for over a year now. I bought hair clippers in late 2007, when DH and BigBro went to buzz-style hair cuts that needed frequent maintenance. It took me a few times to get the hang of it, but I've been doing a decent job for quite a while now.

Last week, I gave BigBro a trim, and oiled the blades afterwards. This morning, still a bit bleary-eyed from my sojurn in LilBro's bed, I pulled out the kit, plugged in the clippers, and turned them on, wiping off the excess oil with a cloth. DH sat down and I started with the first stripe down the center of DH's head. I forgot to put the size guide on! Immediately, my mistake was scarily obvious. DH had a nearly-bald stripe across the top of his head. I felt horrible. I started to cry and apologize. But there was no way to fix it. I couldn't put the hair back on.

I found the smallest size guide and finished the rest of his head, giving him a very close buzz cut, much closer than he'd ever had. He so sweetly told me that it looked fine. He was ok with the cut. And, hey, it would last longer than 3 1/2 weeks. He hugged me and told me to stop worrying about it. He wasn't upset. He knew it was an honest mistake, and he forgave me.

But I felt horrible. I still do. He came downstairs a short time later, and while his hair is short, it doesn't look terrible. But I am having a hard time forgiving myself. It was an honest mistake, but also a careless one. I just didn't have my head in the game this morning. I was busy chattering away about this and that, not paying attention to what I was doing. And DH paid the price for my inattention.

Before he left for work, he told me to blog about this. "And I want it to be about forgiveness. I don't want you beating yourself up for this all day." How well he knows me. Guess my kids aren't the only ones who need a lesson in forgiveness.