The choice

Each day that passes we find ourselves facing new and difficult problems. Sometimes the problems are ones that make us want to run and bury ourselves under the sheets. We are given a choice. The choice we are given is to confront the 'problem' head on or we can run. Today I made the choice to face a problem head on.

Today after working all morning and early afternoon and then starting my 'real' job --shuttling kids too and fro I had a brain storm. Time to fix the sprinklers and get them working again since we have had such beautiful weather. I decided to first pull out the fertilizer spreader and get the grass all taken care of. I walked down under the house where I keep most of my gardening stuff and guess what a lovely suprise I had waiting for me? Yep, another WATER leak! The flexible pipe that connects to my water heater was leaking. Leaking doesn't really seem like the right way of wording this, but after the events of the night laid out, leaking is the best way to describe the way the water was spraying all over under there. I felt at that first moment of realization as if my heart was going to stop and I couldn't move. I could say I hate plumbling, but that would really be a complete understatement. So lets just leave it at that. I first felt myself literally running away. What to do? My dad is up North getting the house up there ready to sell. My mom would be clueless and Dennis is a state away. "Lord I cried what do I do?" I felt myself make a choice at that moment, I decided to face this head on and as a problem but nothing more. I dug out a wrench, (yes I know what a wrench is and how to use it!) and started to tighten the connection, and it stopped, or really it slowed down. Cool! But now it was 'leaking' .. not so cool. Hmm, calling to talk to dad - he knows the layout of my home, I got a voice mail. I picked up the phone and called Dennis. Talking to him calmed me a bit, he encouraged me. After getting off the phone I decided to tighten it up a bit more. Bad idea, or maybe it was a good idea. Maybe instead of thinking I destroyed the pipe, I could simply say, I sped up the process of it completely bursting. Whats the difference? It burst all over me and covered me head to toe in water, and started to flood the entire area as the pipe complete burst. The pipe would have completely burst at any moment, I choose to believe I'm blessed right now in that it burst while I was home and not while I was gone, gone for the weekend just to come home to a flooded home (this is the same wall that flooded the home in the first flood after the rain gutters failed in the back yard). It could have burst in the middle of the night, like the water main did 3 years ago and my dad had to drive out at 2:30 in the morning because for the life of me I couldnt turn the water main valve off. I was blessed, it burst this afternoon at 5:00 pm while it was still light enough to work outside. I did finally get the nerve up to walk across the street and ask a neighbor for help. Im such a coward when it comes to this 'asking for help' business. Jeff was great and helped me fix the problem with a $12 dollar pipe instead of paying the plumber I had called and would have cost me over $100 for the repair. Problem solved, or so I thought and this is just the beginning of my story.

Around 6:30 I hear my daughter growling for lack of better description. I yell up to her as I sit there trying to light the pilot light of the water heart. "Whats wrong?" Not getting a reponse and getting very angry with myself for not getting the pilot light lit, I stomp upstairs to see whats going on. Emily, my 10 year old 4th grader, has decided to get her schoolwork for tomorrow done tonight. She is stumped on a few math problems and literally throwing a tantrum. I'll admit it, I was upset! I spoke firmly with her (ok I yelled at her) and told her to put it all away that I was not in the frame of mind to deal with her like this and since she had made a choice to act like this, she was making the choice and loosing the priviledge to do her school work early. I stomped back down stairs and took on that pilot light. I should add a note, or maybe I should really just think about writing a repair manual for single mothers who will face "plumbing" and fix it issues on their own in the future. See I was thinking that a pilot light on a water heater was just like a BBQ. You click the red button and it ignites. Hmm, I didn't read the part about having a match to "Light" the pilot light. Anyway, finally exasperated with myself I did get the stinking pilot light lit and the water heater is good as new, just soaking wet outside.

Walking back in I was feeling a bit pumped. An issue handled, something I can say I handled better then any other in the past, I was feeling good! Then I realized hmm, where is Emily? I searched the house to find her up in her bed with the bedroom door closed and light off. Hmm, time to be 'super mom'.

Emily I said, why are you hiding? She insisted she wasn't. So I replayed the evening out for her and told her flat out she was. I asked her this, "Emily, what if mommy had decided to run to her bed when the pipe burst?" "What if I had pulled the covers up over my head, what would have happened?" She dropped that 'wall', and sat up and listened. She knew I had a point, and she knew instantly how she was acting was wrong. I told her "We each have a choice each and every day, we can simply choose to take the 'problems' of life as something happening to us, or something happening with us." "We can take them head on or we can run and hide under the covers, the choice is ours, but ultimately, it will effect who we are and those around us. " What do you want to be known for? Do you want to be known as someone who 'hides under the covers in life' or as 'someone who takes on the challenges that come each and every day as just that a challenge, something to grow through? The choice is ours."