Sometimes we use words and phrases without really knowing what they mean. This was the case this last night when our youngest of three sons, aged 20 years, arrived home first for some family time during Thanksgiving break. He lives in St. Paul, Minnesota roughly two and a half hours away. His girlfriend, also from our area, was on break from her college classes, so home they came. I am glad to have an extended time with him and hope to see her as well.
But, I had forgotten that he is a bundle of energy and rarely still. It’s not that he has a nervous energy that’s exhibited by fidgeting or talking or constant motion; it is more that he is productive much of the time. He arrived home about 2:30 p.m. By dinner time, he was pre-drawing his next art piece at the kitchen counter. After dinner, I found him cleaning out our stack of little-used Wii games to take back to St. Paul with him. Then, he disappeared for a while – retreating to his room. At 9:15 p.m. he appeared again, wanting to know if he could disassemble the ping pong table in our utility/storage room downstairs. He pleaded his case saying it had not been used in years (true) and he’d like to have it. He might “do” an art project on it or he might use it as is. He was sure he could fit it in the mini-van to transport back to St. Paul if it was disassembled.
Ugh! Really? This was my reaction. There was “stuff” all over it. My sister-in-law had done early Christmas shopping while she was here watching our dog when we went on vacation in October and those wrapped gifts were on the table. I was guilty of using the table as a temporary storage solution, too. A few late summer knickknacks were waiting to be put away, as were some silk flowers, and a basket or two. My husband, who had been refinishing our window trim, also had two boxes of “stuff” being stored on the table. Computer ink boxes waiting to be recycled and a defunct computer were also being held hostage on the table. Don’t get me wrong, you could see the tabletop in many cases and it could have been a whole lot worse.
But, really?! Dissembling a pingpong table at 9:30 on a Wednesday night? I had forgotten the amount of energy this kid has! He’s like a hurricane, blowing through, but leaving organized chaos and perhaps a chance to reduce, reuse, repurpose, and recycle in his wake. Productivity reigns!
So, I let him disassemble AFTER I had taken care of some of the piles by putting the items in their proper storage space. He helped, following my direction as to where to put things. Immediately, I dropped a frog light that I meant to take to our cabin. Glass was everywhere. But, he cleaned it up for me! By 11 p.m., and only causing me to invest a fraction of my evening downtime, he was done.
This morning the term Whirling Dervish came to mind. I couldn’t remember the context of this phrase so I looked it up, here. Apart from the spinning motion and energy, it really doesn’t apply. Maybe, he’s more like a Tasmanian devil!
In any case – whether hurricane, Whirling Dervish, or Tasmanian devil, I feel energized today. I never realized that perhaps I draw energy from others – especially one of my own offspring who seems to have an awful lot of it! And, when I told my husband what I had written about this morning, he laughed and said, well, he’s a lot like you! And, I guess that is very true!
The Apples in My Orchard 