Life's a Snap

Sometimes it's good to have a reminder. 4 year-olds are often good for that.

I got Ev dressed the other morning and he was somewhat distressed that I had selected a pair of jeans with a snap fastener at the top as opposed to a fastener that slides/clips shut. The reason for his concern was that he could manipulate the clip but the snap would not cooperate with his little fingers. With the snap jeans he feared he would need help fastening his pants.

Reasonable enough. I suggested to him, however, that today might be the day he would be able to snap that stubborn snap and master that type pair of jeans. Hesitant, but ever willing, he pulled up those jeans, wrestled the snap into position and...."snap!" His eyes lit up and his face erupted into a smile that words can not describe. "I did it!"

His triumph made me wonder: When was the last time I faced an obstacle and succeeded with such a feeling of immense satisfaction? And too, when was the last time I did not take for granted one of the many small tasks I successfully accomplish each day? A hundred times a day we do small things like tie shoelaces, button shirts, wipe our butts, hold our own coffee cup, dial a phone number. We cannot possibly remember what it took to learn such things. And now such tasks are automatic-- unconscious and beyond even being taken for granted. Lucky us.

We might do well to pay better attention. Someone may be snapping our pants soon enough!