The Greener Grasses of Weaknesses

Today I bought a volleyball/badminton set. I pulled the gazillion pieces out of the boxes and with instructions in hand, I set out to put the net together. No matter how many times I read the directions and stared at the example picture, I could not get my net to come together correctly. After half an hour, my dad having finished what he was doing came to the rescue and had the thing put together in less than ten minutes. It didn’t match the picture, he didn’t follow the steps or diagrams but the net was up and usable. He instinctively knew what the net needed and quickly problem solved to make it work.  

We are all gifted differently and it is ok that I had a hard time today with the net assembly. If we were all good at the same thing, we would be a boring species. I was remembering earlier today about one time when my directionally challenged mom was visiting and ended up on the opposite side of town completely confused. I ended up coming to where she was and led her back to familiar territory. She was quite upset feeling like she couldn’t do anything right that day. I began to encourage her because she is simply gifted differently. I agreed that yes, I am gifted in navigation but my mom is gifted with people. She will speak to and smile at strangers. She is kind and compassionate to elderly adults. She drops what she is doing at any hour of the day if her phone rings. She serves my family, extended family, and her close friends valiantly. I am not gifted as a people person. Most days I would rather hide in a closet rather than speak to a stranger and some days I would like to omit conversations with my day to day acquaintances as well.  

Today I fumed about the difficulties I had in understanding the net assembly directions but as I reflect back, I’m thankful for my dad who is gifted in assembling things. I’m thankful that he can think outside the box and come up with a workable solution quickly. I’m thankful I have navigational skills to help my mom when she gets in a bind rather than having two people in a lost predicament. I’m thankful my mom lays her life down day after day for people including myself. I’m thankful for the greener grass of family life and communal friendships because we all have something unique to offer each other. My weaknesses are someone else’s strengths and today I embrace this truth.