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March 09, 2008
Theres Always a Way to Solve a Problem
Saturdays in March are busy mornings and fun afternoons. When I had four children at home, that’s the way it was. Last Saturday I watched four children, not my own, having a busy late Saturday morning and preparing for a fun afternoon.
The morning's chorea including finishing a cement sidewalk project at a new house and planting trees made the busy morning, but the fun came with a drive, several drives, on the four wheel mule. Mules aren’t like they used to be. Equipped with engines, steering wheels, and a cart, they can take children into fields and along creek beds. These days a mule can help sow flower seeds or sit quietly by while children watch beavers build a dam.
On this particular afternoon, three of the four were collecting flowers. The girls came up with a bouquet of yellow-gold, purples, and reds. Who know what the names were, but the colors were delicate and bold at the same time.
The only boy in the group brought in a few flowers as well. He wasn’t going to be outdone by his sisters. Perhaps no one would notice how much he needed the mule to take him to the farthest reaches of beyond for just the right one.
On one of his last trips into the wilds he brought back only one lone flower, a poppy, the only one in his bouquet. As he handed to me he said, “The stem cracked.”
I could indeed see where the stem had broken almost in half. The poor little flower wasn’t going to be able to stand up with the rest of the flowers he carefully arranged. He looked disappointed, but his face lit up with an idea.
“Do you have any tape?” he asked. When I hesitated he turned to his Dad, “Dad, where’s the duct tape.”
He was out the door in a second without waiting for an answer. He came back with three rolls of blue tape. “Can I use this?” he asked.
I went to find scissors. I wasn’t sure how this would work, but I loved the problem solving. In less than a minute he had bandaged the stem with a very small piece of blue tape. The flower stood tall among its relatives and gave his array a great flair.
I chuckled all the way home commenting on men’s and boy’s propensity to find more uses for duct tape than there are bricks in the sidewalk they’d been working on earlier in the day, but what I most enjoyed was the way he figured out what to do in his own way. What a fun Saturday afternoon
Posted by Dr Joni at March 9, 2008 06:53 PM
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