Finding Stability

I have been doing an exercise routine for several weeks now. From the very beginning I have been doing pull-ups twice a week with a stool that is pretty unstable. It's not unstable to stand on, but unstable when I use it to help me with my pull-ups.

To solve this problem, I have been having one of my children sit on the stool while I do the exercises. As you can imagine, this gets kinda tedious. The kids have taken turns, but my workout stretches out over an hour's time, and the pull-ups don't all come together, so it's an arduous process. They can't really go on to doing something else or wander off to play.

Today was the first day that the three older kids were all gone at the time that I was working out. They had piano lessons, and my choice came down to Alyn. Knowing Alyn, I knew that sitting still long enough to help me for the whole hour would be quite a feat. I talked to him about it, and he promised to help me, no matter what else seemed interesting to him, or what else he wanted to do. I was set.

By the second set of pull-ups, however, he had wandered off to draw (his absolute favorite pass-time) and I feared I was in trouble. When I found him, I asked him to come and help me like he had promised.

His reply, "Don't worry, Mom. I am helping you. I already fixed the problem. Go look."

I went to look at the stool, wondering what I would find. Sure enough, he HAD fixed my problem. He had found two full paint cans and placed them on top of the stool. It was perfect. I had obviously overlooked the simplest of solutions and went on to something that was much more difficult and complex. I had to constantly rely on someone else to solve my problem, rather than seeing finding a solution I could implement myself.

I gave him a big hug, and thanked him for his ingenuity. It was genius. He really is a genius, as are all of us if we really look to find the solutions. My solution got me by, but his gave me a sure fix to my instability.