Today, in the precious waking hours between my post-work nap and my pre-work
prep, I oversaw a school science project. Under my able (well,
serviceable) tutelage, two middle schoolers investigated the durability
of balloons under the influence of heat and with the effects of oil and
soap and soda.
Sound messy? Oh, it was. I spent almost as long wiping up oil and soap and soda as they spent collecting data, and I suspect I will be
discovering pieces of balloon in my kitchen for quite a while. Will the
science done win a Nobel Prize, or even the science fair? Unlikely. But
as I look back on the experiments, and as I look forward to the days of
finding pieces of balloon, I can't help but be glad I was there. Often
we hand off the jobs that will be challenging, or out of our comfort
zone, or, well, messy. But when we embrace those things--when we involve
ourselves enough to forget about the messiness of it all--we walk away
with stories to tell and laughter to remember. When we step out of our
comfort zone, we let ourselves step into places we might never have
gone. Today, that was to a kitchen full of oily, soapy, sugary balloons. I wonder what tomorrow's mess will be...
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