The Secret to Life

Children love doing meaningful things. Give them a real shovel and a hose and you're hard-pressed to stop them. On this day, while we were watering the trees, Silke suggested the kids dig an irrigation ditch down the lilac hedge. They dug with shovels. They dug with hands. They crawled on their knees and bellies to get under branches. They stopped to play, then started again. We even made a little bridge with a piece of flagstone (with a bit of adult help). When all was finished, the kids delighted in watching the water flow down the ditch, cheering it on like a race horse. And we won. But there were no losers, because everyone was in on the project. And it was real - we needed to water those lilacs. Work. Play. Children. Adults. This is the secret to life.