The fruits of our labor

The fruits of our labor'

You should've seen the look on my sons face when he looked out his bedroom window this morning and saw a couple of sparrows making a nest in the house he and I made last week.

I hate sounding preachy, and I never want to use this face book page as a platform to do so'
So - lets call it, 'A gentle reminder'

We live in a very rushed world. It seems like everything has to be instantaneous, like a scratch and win lottery ticket. We get impatient if our internet is slow. We expect immediate responses to emails and text messages. We have smart phones, tablets, laptops, you name it.' I'm not opposed to technology. I use power tools to create work. We all live busy lives and at time it's easier to hand our child the smart phone or tablet so they can entertain themselves while we do other things. I get it''
But what I don't get is why we would prefer to do so over spending some time with them. Time- the most valuable of all things. We rush around living our lives but then as we get older we try to slow it down. crazy'

I'm by no means perfect, or have the perfect recipe on how to live your life. To each his own. I feel that the making of objects is an inherent trait to the human species. we are makers. We have articulated wrist. This is a trait only found in humans and apes and monkeys. We use these articulated wrist to build and make objects, play musical instruments, type on a keyboard and to communicate. There's a reason why we feel so fulfilled when we make something. I feel along the way we've ignored this inherent trait and forgot how to nurture and foster it.

What I don't want to do is to ignore what's important to my son. Time with his dad. Back to the bird house. The house took only an hour to build but during that time spent with my son I learned what was going on in his seven year old world. I learned about his friends at school, the games they play at recess, the books they read, his likes and dislikes and a whole bunch of random things. One hour. That's all it took to make a positive impact on his life. We got caught up and connected. My son cheered when he saw the birds in the house he made. He felt a sense of pride and accomplishment, more than moving up another level on a video game. He gave me a high five and said "way to go dad'
I apologize if I've sounded preachy. It's just the act of spending a single hour to make a simple bird house,and getting back to basics had a huge impact. I hope that one day when my son's a parent and his kids are complaining because there isn't anything to do- he remembers this moment and spends a single hour and makes something with them.

I figure that I've been around for more than 760,416667 hours in this world. I can spare one'

As always - thanks for following
Be safe and be creative
Best
Steve