pick your battles

How is it that two people that are 8 decades apart can fight over sticks? It’s actually a little ridiculous.

Eli was 9, and Grandma was 91. My little boy, growing up in the country, loved sticks. He mostly pretended they were weapons and he fought invisible bad guys with them all over our backyard. He would carefully choose the best ones and dream them into the perfect implement with the necessary features for his battle. When the day was over, Eli would place them out back in a pile ready for the next day.

Flurie Family Farm

Grandma loved sticks. Well actually, Grandma loved rules. The township said the sticks went into the mulch recycling can. So, every Thursday, Grandma would gather all the sticks she could find to put out for recycling. And, every Friday, our son would wake up to find his sticks gone.

Eli would be mad. Grandma would be satisfied. Then the reverse happened a few days after the recycling went. Grandma was mad as she found sticks cluttering the yard, clearly left by a happy little boy after his battle with the enemy.

With a little help from us, Eli finally figured out a plan. He hid his sticks in the willow tree. Oddly, Grandma never looked near the tree for sticks. Strange, I know. Even more strange, we are surrounded by trees, acres of them and yet these two apparently didn’t have enough so they fought over the same sticks. Ridiculous.

Last week, my now 21 year old son pulled a stick out of his room. Imagine my surprise! It was 2 inches thick and eight feet long. His eyes flashed with a memory and he smiled as he told me about the stick. At 14 years old, my son whittled a spear out of a long stick and then came running to me. He asked if he could keep it in his room. It was special to him and he was determined to save it from Grandma.

So, what’s the lesson? Pick your battles. Or maybe just hide your sticks.

For the record, we were cleaning his room when the treasured stick was found. And no, we didn’t get rid of the stick - it’s still there. He’ll probably still have it when he tells his kids the story someday.

Searching for wisdom and asking for grace,

Jody