I recently spent the afternoon on a craft project with my nephew. It was an educational and enjoyable experience. We had to communicate, work collaboratively, and LISTEN to each other…
The task was creating a Glow-in-the-Dark nightlight using a balloon, glue, string and a lot of TEAMwork!
The final product, displayed in glorious color on the package, compelled us forward to what appeared a ‘simple project.’
And then we began… TOGETHER.
There were a couple tasks that one could do alone… Isn’t that how life is? But when the glue that holds it all together got difficult to apply, we worked HAND-over-HAND over hand to squeeze out more than my nephew thought was possible.
Then we took to the major task of the project… wrapping the glue-covered string in a manner that, once dried, would hold the star-shaped balloon’s form.
In hindsight, I don’t know how much I explained to my nephew, the necessity of keeping the string wrapped as BALANCED as possible, so that the star would be identifiable.
But we managed. Back and forth, he wrapped as I turned; with a bit of give and take we ultimately completed the sparkly blue string. And then we waited. The glue had to dry. WAITING. Not my favorite thing to do! But in the hours between, it gave us both time to enjoy other things.
It made me ask what other things in life need ‘drying time.’ So often, the things that we allow to ‘simmer’ end up being so much more rich, than if we’d simply rushed through to get the product we wanted.
Once dry, there were more steps. By then we had a system! And working together went much smoother as we began to see the fruits of our labor.
We ended up with a beautiful product. And for me, I learned a lesson in how I communicate.
Truly a bright spot in my visit!