This morning I found yellow slime on my kitchen floor.
Just a little drop of it. Another drop was on the kitchen chair. Another a couple rooms away. I’m sure it’s not the last I’ll see.
One of my sons got a reward yesterday of yellow slime. I hate slime, but it was actually funny trying to watch him figure out what to do with it. I guess when you open the plastic can, slime is really sticky and doesn’t come together easily. If you just stuck a finger in and pull it back out, a thin string of goop will follow you. And then another, and another as you try and dislodge yourself from it’s grasp.
Apparently to adequately play with slime you have to take some time with it. You have to work on it like you’d work on dough for a loaf of homemade bread. You have to be patient. You have to take it a step at a time with no sudden bold moves. Eventually, you get something that comes together. It still stretches to fit the mold you want it to take but it doesn’t come apart. It doesn’t become 1,000 disconnect strings. Instead it becomes one solid, flexible mass.
My boys gave up on the slime. It was too hard to make it work and they were creating too much of a mess at my kitchen table. They just tossed it and went to the bathroom to try and get the remnants off their hands. (That’s probably why I’ll be finding drops of slime for days).
This slime seems like so many plans I’ve made this year! Plans made out of desperation or a desire to just get things up and running. Only to have to go back to the drawing board over and over.
There is always the temptation to dive into something with both hands and come up with a bunch of disconnected strings only to throw it all away in the end. The better, and sometimes more challenging choice, is to slowly work on a plan until it comes together. A plan that is still flexible and malleable to the unpredictable but connects and flows.
My prayer this morning is that we have patience to slowly work on whatever we are facing right now. Let us take the time we need to think before we dive in, and then to dive in with purpose knowing that the best things often take time and work to come together.
(I told the boys there is a boycott on slime in our house though – it’s better as a metaphor)
